Socio-Economic Vulnerability Assessment for Supporting a Sustainable Pandemic Management in Austria

Abstract

The outbreaks of a new pandemic in 2019 let humankind face a new type of challenge. People and groups in vulnerable situations were especially affected. Increasing urbanization, climate change, and global travel raise the likelihood of pandemics. COVID-19 has shown that sustainable and well-planned pandemic management is necessary, which also includes and identifies people in vulnerable situations. In this study, a socio-economic vulnerability assessment (VA) for supporting improved pandemic/epidemic risk management at the municipality level in Austria was conducted. The VA provides a holistic overview of the vulnerability under pre-event conditions in Austria, which can be used to support pandemic management. Therefore, we calculated a composite indicator with expert-based weighting. The necessary indicators were defined through a literature review and an expert consortium consisting of practical and scientific members. As a result, an interactive map containing the vulnerability index (VI) for each municipality was created, making it possible to also assess underlying vulnerable factors to support decision-making. The applicability of the VA was shown in the relationship between a high VI in a municipality and a high number of deaths. A limiting factor to the VA was the missing data for health indicators for the whole of Austria. Hence, we provide a list with recommendations on which data should be collected to improve the VA in the future.