A Method for Constructing a Social Vulnerability Index: An Application to Hurricane Storm Surges in a Developed Country

Rygel, Lisa; O’Sullivan, David; Yarnal, Brent

doi:10.1007/s11027-006-0265-6

Cited by 425 publications

(231 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Since three decades several works have been made to establish strategies and procedures for evaluating coastal vulnerability to climate change and other related aspects, accompanied with economics (Cutter et al 2003;Lewsey et al 2004;Vincent 2004;Rygel et al 2006;Phillips and Jones 2006;Hinkel et al 2009;Torresan et al 2012;Addo 2013;Tang et al 2013;Wolters and Kuenzer 2015;Denner et al 2015;Wu et al 2016). A summary of several methodologies established and applied globally is provided here.…”

Section: Coastal Vulnerability Appraisal Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal infrastructure vulnerability: an integrated assessment model

Kantamaneni

2016

Nat Hazards

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The significance of coastal regions to the infrastructure and the need to protect such assets are crucial to the economy of countries. Therefore, there is a real need to enhance the understanding of coastal infrastructure susceptibility as well as to develop methodologies to estimate vulnerability. A review of the literature regarding coastal vulnerability reveals that the focus has been on geomorphological and physical parameters but not infrastructure and the associated fiscal factors. In order to address this knowledge gap, an innovative model is developed, i.e., the Coastal Infrastructure Vulnerability Index (CIVI). Then the model is applied to the case of the Aberystwyth coast demonstrating how the model estimates the vulnerability of the coastal infrastructure (comprising population, commercial and residential properties). Subsequently, the CIVI scores were used to rank coastal sections into five classes, ranging from extremely low to extremely high, based on the relative magnitude of the vulnerability. The rankings for each parameter were combined, and then an index value was calculated. Results revealed that Aberystwyth contains more than £40 billion of coastal infrastructure vulnerability and more than 10,000 inhabitants are at the high coastal risk posed by flooding, erosion, storm surges, and strong winds.

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Section: Coastal Vulnerability Appraisal Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal infrastructure vulnerability: an integrated assessment model

Kantamaneni

2016

Nat Hazards

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“…Commonly used weighting procedures are mainly based on either statistical methods (Aleksandrova et al 2015) or participatory methods . Based on statistical methods of Pareto ranking, Rygel et al (2006) and Karmakar et al (2010), for example, demonstrated a method of aggregating vulnerability indicators that avoids the problems associated with assigning weights. The statistical based methods does not incorporate stakeholders' attitude in aggregation.…”

Section: Assessment Of Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

An integrated approach of flood risk assessment in the eastern part of Dhaka City

et al. 2015

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The flood risk is a function of the flood hazard, the exposed values and their vulnerability. In addition to extreme hydrological events, different anthropogenic activities such as extensive urbanization and land use play an important role in producing catastrophic floods.Considerations of both physical and social dimensions are therefore equally important in flood risk assessment. However, very often the risk assessment studies either focus on physical or social dimensions. In addition, the available studies often focus on economic valuation of only direct tangible costs. In this study, we provide an integrated flood risk assessment approach that go beyond valuation of direct tangible costs, through incorporating physical dimensions in hazard and exposure and social dimensions in vulnerability. The method has been implemented in the Dhaka City, Bangladesh, an area internationally recognized hotspot for flood risk. In this study, flood hazards for different return periods are calculated in spatial environment using a hydrologic model, HEC-RAS. Vulnerability is assessed through aggregation of various social dimensions i.e., coping and adaptive capacities, susceptibility. We assess vulnerability for both baseline and improved scenario. In the baseline scenario, current early warning for study area is considered. In the alternative scenario, the warning system is expected to improve. Aggregating hazard, exposure and vulnerability, risk maps (in terms of both tangible and intangible costs) of several return period floods are produced for both baseline and improved scenario. Compared to traditional assessments, the integrated assessment approach used in this study generates more information about the flood risk. Consequently, the results are useful in evaluating policy alternatives and minimizing property loss in the study area.

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“…1 Issues such as race and ethnicity, socioeconomic class, gender and housing condition and tenure are recognised as among the most important characteristics for defining socially excluded populations (Cutter et al 2003, Tapsell et al 2002, Morrow 1999, Rygel et al 2006, Satterthwaite et al 2009.…”

Section: Place Social Exclusion and Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly single parent households are more at risk not only because they are frequently low income households (Rygel et al 2006), but also because of the added responsibilities in caring for dependent children (Clark et al 1998). Significant health problems such as long term illness or disability have also been found to be associated with elevated risk in the event of extreme weather impact (Morrow 1999).…”

Section: Place Social Exclusion and Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Making space for social inclusion in conceptualising climate change vulnerability

Arthurson

Baum

2013

Local Environment

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(150 words)Impacts from climate change pose a raft of challenges for societies, governments and policy makers internationally. The anticipated changes are well documented, including rising sea levels, increased floods and other extreme weather conditions. Much research and policy emphasis has focused on technical and economic aspects. Less debated are questions about different communities' vulnerabilities, inequitable distributional impacts, social justice issues and how vulnerability links to social inclusion/exclusion. This paper explores a case study which maps social exclusion and vulnerability in Brisbane, Queensland, and found that while communities can be vulnerable through physical aspects of an area, when social dimensions are added to the equation it amplifies or exacerbates the scale of vulnerability. The findings also suggest that in developing research agendas and policy debates around climate change there could be benefits from interlinking the currently separate areas of work on social vulnerability to extreme weather events, to forms and processes of social inclusion/exclusion.

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A Method for Constructing a Social Vulnerability Index: An Application to Hurricane Storm Surges in a Developed Country

Abstract: vulnerability assessment, vulnerability indicators, vulnerability index, indicator weighting, Pareto ranking, social vulnerability, extreme weather events,

Cited by 425 publications

References 17 publications

Coastal infrastructure vulnerability: an integrated assessment model

Coastal infrastructure vulnerability: an integrated assessment model

An integrated approach of flood risk assessment in the eastern part of Dhaka City

Making space for social inclusion in conceptualising climate change vulnerability

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