POTENTIAL DRIVERS OF HUMAN MIGRATION UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE: A REVIEW

Understanding the drivers of human migration is essential for formulating effective policies and adaptation strategies to address potential population migration induced by climate change.This paper provides a comprehensive review of the potential drivers of population migration under climate change, with special emphasis on environmental factors.Key concepts such as climate migration, displacement, and planned relocation are clarified.Through a synthesis of existing literature and relative importance analysis, we show that climate change is increasingly recognized as a critical driver influencing migration patterns, interacting with and often exacerbating economic, social, political, and demographic factors.Although economic factors remain the primary drivers of migration, environmental drivers-such as sea-level rise, extreme weather events, glacial melt, drought, and ecosystem degradation-are becoming increasingly significant.Among these, floods constitute the largest share of disaster-related displacements (49.54%), followed by rainstorms (37.9%) and droughts (3.27%), highlighting the need for focused research and response efforts on hydrological and precipitation-related disaster.These climate-related factors disrupt livelihoods, intensify resource scarcity, and threaten human security, thereby accelerating both voluntary and forced migration.The study further reveals that the role of environmental drivers is context-dependent and non-linear, often operating through complex pathways that interact with socioeconomic vulnerabilities.The paper highlights the urgency of integrating environmental migration into climate adaptation and development policies.Further research is essential to understand migration thresholds, strengthen adaptive capacity, and support resilient governance systems in the face of growing climate risks.