1 © 2019 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY IN RWANDA, EAST AFRICA Lamek Nahayo 1+ Jean Baptiste Nsengiyumva 2 Christophe Mupenzi 3 Richard Mind’je 4 Enan Muhire Nyesheja 5 1,2 Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 818 South Beijing Road, Ürümqi, Xinjiang, 830011, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; University of Lay Adventists of Kigali (UNILAK), Kigali-Rwanda. 4 Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 818 South Beijing Road, Ürümqi, Xinjiang, 830011, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; University of Lay Adventists of Kigali (UNILAK), Kigali-Rwanda; University of Lay Adventists of Kigali (UNILAK), Kigali-Rwanda. 3,5 University of Lay Adventists of Kigali (UNILAK), Kigali-Rwanda. (+ Corresponding author) ABSTRACT Article History Received: 5 November 2018 Revised: 12 December 2018 Accepted: 16 January 2019 Published: 20 March 2019 Keywords Climate change Flood Rainfall Population growth Vulnerability Rwanda. This study aims to spatially assess the flood vulnerability then suggests appropriate vulnerability lessening and adaptation mechanisms in Rwanda. Six vulnerability factors namely the rainfall and temperature, total population, access to communication tools, poverty level and number of schools were analyzed. The Weighting Linear Combination (WLC) method in ArcGIS is used to analyze these factors and spread the resulting flood vulnerability countrywide. The results showed high flood vulnerability within the northern, western and southern provinces and Kigali city of Rwanda. This vulnerability is likely to rise due to the noticed low possession of communication tools and education delivery, which could help to enhance the risk awareness and preparedness among the vulnerable communities. The results of this study can help policy makers to understand the required community’s vulnerability lessening measures and ensure spread of mitigation and adaptation policies as per vulnerability extent within Rwanda. Contribution/Originality: The paper primary contribution is finding that climate change risk, mainly the flooding are gradually causing severe losses and damages in Rwanda. Thus, the mapped flood vulnerability can be useful to policy makers to better recognize the required vulnerability lessening policies based on the actual circumstances. 1. INTRODUCTION Under climate change, it is predicted that the temperature and precipitation will rise by about 2 o C, and 1 to 2%, respectively, in the next decades, and this consequently, will cause wet places to become much wetter and dry places will be much drier (Fosu-Mensah et al., 2012; Dami et al., 2017). The changing climate risks such as droughts, Tsunamis, water borne diseases, heatwaves, storm winds, floods, landslides, etc., caused by rainfall and temperature patterns are severely causing immense losses among the communities. The poor and vulnerable people are largely affected primarily due to lack of risk awareness, adaptation and financial capabilities (Hirabayashi et al., 2013; Oruonye and Ahmed, 2017; Ullah et al., 2018).Within the East Africa, where Rwanda is located, more than 90 percent of the recorded natural disasters are hydro-meteorological caused by climate change causing serve losses International Journal of Geography and Geology 2019 Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 1-9 ISSN(e): 2305-7041 ISSN(p): 2306-9872 DOI: 10.18488/journal.10.2019.81.1.9 © 2019 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved.