This article reconsiders vulnerability to contemporary hazards within the context of a globalizing world, characterized by the hegemony of technocratic and social modernity. It presents findings of a field study conducted on flood hazard in the Rawalpindi/Islamabad conurbation in Pakistan. Insights from three intellectual traditions within resource geography-pragmatism, political ecology, and ''socionature''-are coupled with the landscape idea within cultural geography to develop the integrative concept of a ''hazardscape.'' This concept is defined as both an analytical way of seeing that asserts power and as a social-environmental space where the gaze of power is contested and struggled against to produce the lived reality of hazardous places. Analyses of the Lai Nullah hazardscape in the Rawalpindi/Islamabad conurbation reveal that flood victims perceive a much greater range of choice in dealing with the flood hazard than do policy makers. On the other hand, flood managers, typically state agents, see a very limited range of choice because of their modernist technocratic engagement with the Lai hazardscape. The hazardscape concept engages the social structural basis of vulnerability as well as the power/ knowledge dynamic governing policy and popular discourses on flood hazard in the Lai. Analysis through the lens of the hazardscape helps expand the range of choice and suggests pragmatic solutions to hazardous situations.

This paper uses recent theoretical advances in the field of h a r d research to inform the analysis of an empirical study on flood hazard conducted in central Palastan. The investigation seeks to understand the causes of vulnerability and their development that culminates in disaster, with the basic presumption that empirical events have causal links going back to societal structures which are not measurable but contain the mechanisms that lead to the events and t h e i r r c e ptions. A case study in five villages of central Pakistan was conducted to un erstand the elements of communities' and social groups' differential vulnerability to flood hazard. The elements of vulnerability are situated within a tripartite conceptual space of vulnerability, composed of entitlement relations, em werment relations, and political economy. A modified "pressure and release" m& was applied to the field survey results to understand the pro ssion of vulnerability from the StNCstudy communities' vulnerability was largely a function of their disempowerment.tural abstract level to the concrete level o r physical disasters. I concluded that the Hazards, by definition, occur only where and when natural extremes and social systems interact (Kates 1971;Kates and Burton 1986; Susman, O'Keefe, and Wisner 1983). Traditionally, hazard-related research and policy has concentrated on the physical events causing disasters. Behavioralist analysis has broadened the discourse on hazards by also addressing individual and organizational perceptions and behavior. In this paper I build upon and go beyond behavioralist analysis to contend that social systems are stressed to

Social vulnerability analyses have typically relied upon narratives to capture the nuances of the concept. While narratives have enhanced our understanding of the multiple drivers of vulnerability, they have had limited influence on hazards and climate adaptation policy. This is partially a function of the different needs and goals of the policy and research communities. The former prioritises generalised quantitative information, while the latter is more concerned with capturing complexity. A theoretically driven and empirically tested quantitative vulnerability and capacities index (VCI) for use at the local scale is presented to help connect vulnerability research and policy. There are four versions of the index for use in rural and urban contexts at the household and community levels. There can be an infinite number of drivers of vulnerability, but the VCI draws upon 12 indicators to represent material, institutional and attitudinal aspects of differential vulnerability and capacities.

Limited water availability, population growth, and climate change have resulted in freshwater crises in many countries. Jordan’s situation is emblematic, compounded by conflict-induced population shocks. Integrating knowledge across hydrology, climatology, agriculture, political science, geography, and economics, we present the Jordan Water Model, a nationwide coupled human–natural-engineered systems model that is used to evaluate Jordan’s freshwater security under climate and socioeconomic changes. The complex systems model simulates the trajectory of Jordan’s water system, representing dynamic interactions between a hierarchy of actors and the natural and engineered water environment. A multiagent modeling approach enables the quantification of impacts at the level of thousands of representative agents across sectors, allowing for the evaluation of both systemwide and distributional outcomes translated into a suite of water-security metrics (vulnerability, equity, shortage duration, and economic well-being). Model results indicate severe, potentially destabilizing, declines in freshwater security. Per capita water availability decreases by approximately 50% by the end of the century. Without intervening measures, >90% of the low-income household population experiences critical insecurity by the end of the century, receiving <40 L per capita per day. Widening disparity in freshwater use, lengthening shortage durations, and declining economic welfare are prevalent across narratives. To gain a foothold on its freshwater future, Jordan must enact a sweeping portfolio of ambitious interventions that include large-scale desalinization and comprehensive water sector reform, with model results revealing exponential improvements in water security through the coordination of supply- and demand-side measures.

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