Coastal river deltas are densely populated areas and hotspots of vulnerability. The delta's ecological, social, and economic components are vulnerable to a wide variety of natural and anthropogenic threats. Sea level rise, climate variability, and rapid socio-economic development exert pressure on the already highly dynamic regions. To protect river deltas and their components, it is necessary to assess the degree of vulnerability so that mitigation efforts can be recommended to stakeholders and policy makers. Many such vulnerability assessments have been undertaken for river deltas. However, as vulnerability and related terms, such as resilience, coping-, and adaptive capacity only entered geosciences in the past decades, these terms are often used ambiguously. This makes it hard to compare existing studies, which not only interpret the related terms differently, but also consider completely different threats to deltas and their components, at different spatial and temporal scales. A comprehensive overview of studies addressing vulnerability of river deltas is missing. This paper presents a review, based on a consolidated set of definitions of vulnerability and related concepts in the context of coastal river deltas. All studies reviewed were categorized depending on their focus on either the ecologic, social, or economic component of river deltas, and were classified according to their spatial scale, temporal resolution, and numerous other research characteristics. Clear trends on dominant research foci in the field of river delta vulnerability could be extracted. Additionally, based on the findings presented here, recommendations for future assessments considering existing research gaps, are formulated.

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a b s t r a c tIn this paper, we present the results of a comprehensive survey concerning environmental awareness and vulnerability, conducted in October 2013 in the Yellow River Delta, China. The purpose of this survey is to provide insight to the vulnerability of rural households and their livelihoods to internal and external threats, such as flooding, oil spills, droughts, erosion, and salinization. Education level, awareness, opinions regarding pollution and available public utilities and facilities are also polled. Specific questions regarding agriculture and aquaculture activities are included. It is the most comprehensive questionnaire regarding social vulnerability in the area to date, with 93 households interviewed with the aid of an interpreter. The results show that the respondents generally have a low education; many earn below minimum wage for the area, and are not aware of global processes of climate variability and sea level rise. Cotton and maize are the predominant agriculture crops farmed in the area, while ground salinization is a major threat to agriculture. The results of this survey can be used in a follow up study in conjunction with a separate spatial data analysis (e.g. earth observation, census) to assess the social vulnerability in the Yellow River Delta in a spatially representative fashion.

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