Getting the Scale Right: A Comparison of Analytical Methods for Vulnerability Assessment and Household-level Targeting

This paper introduces broad concepts of vulnerability, food security and famine. It argues that the concepts and theories driving development and implementation of vulnerability assessment tools are related to their utility. The review concludes that socio-geographic scale is a key issue, and challenge. It analyses three vulnerability assessment (VA) methods, using Ethiopia as a case study. Facing the challenges of vulnerability assessment and early warning requires providing accurate information at the required scale, useful for multiple decision-makers within realistic institutional capacities.     

How Is Household Vulnerability Gendered? Female‐headed Households in the Collectives of Suleimaniyah,Iraqi Kurdistan

This research tries to reach an understanding of the well-being of female-headed household members through a comparison to male-headed household members in the collectives of the Suleimaniyah governorate in Iraqi Kurdistan. Research was undertaken in five collectives in Suleimaniyah during the summer of 1998. The research contributes to the current gender and development debates which are concerned with improving the understanding of the specific gendered forms of disadvantage faced by female-headed households rather than assuming the universal poverty of this group. An understanding of well-being is approached through a broad conceptualisation of vulnerability in preference to a narrow poverty definition. That the findings of this research are complex attests to the multi-dimensional and mutually constitutive gendered experiences of vulnerability. The definitive conclusion to emerge from this research is a refuting of the rhetoric-fuelled stereotype that households headed by women are at a disadvantage in all the dimensions of vulnerability in comparison to households headed by men. The research also establishes the methodological necessity of examining intra-household distributive mechanisms that determine individuals' well-being.     

Pinning down social vulnerability in Sindh Province,Pakistan: from narratives to numbers,and back again

This paper reflects critically on the results of a vulnerability assessment process at the household and community scale using a quantitative vulnerabilities and capacities index. It validates a methodology for a social vulnerability assessment at the local scale in 62 villages across four agro‐ecological/livelihood zones in Sindh Province, Pakistan. The study finds that the move from vulnerability narratives to numbers improves the comparability and communicational strength of the concept. The depth and nuance of vulnerability, however, can be realised only by a return to narrative. Caution is needed, therefore: the index can be used in conjunction with qualitative assessments, but not instead of them. More substantively, the results show that vulnerability is more a function of historico‐political economic factors and cultural ethos than any biophysical changes wrought by climate. The emerging gendered vulnerability picture revealed extremes of poverty and a lack of capacity to cope with contemporary environmental and social stresses.     

The views of experts and residents on social vulnerability to flash floods in an Alpine region of Italy

This paper reports on research work performed for Floodsite a European Community-funded project on the social aspects of vulnerability in the Adige/Sarca river basin of the Trentino-Alto Adige region, Italy. It identifies some limitations to the use of a fixed set of indicators, which fail to account for either local peculiarities or the intangible aspects that contribute to the shaping of social vulnerability. The authors employed a number of methods to investigate the opinions of professionals and residents on risk and safety, distinguishing between the individual and the institutional components of social vulnerability. Adopting a systemic perspective, they explored the interactions between these two elements, showing how they may give rise to unexpected phenomena. The 'safety paradox' and the 'efficiency paradox' are discussed, emerging when increased protection provided by structural devices and dedicated institutions translates into a lack of awareness and agency on the part of residents.     

Risk and vulnerability indicators at different scales:: Applicability, usefulness and policy implications

This paper outlines selected approaches to measuring risk and vulnerability to hazards of natural origin using indicators and indices. It discusses their applicability, usefulness and policy implications. Indicators and indices have been developed on different scales and for different purposes. The paper will briefly introduce three global approaches to disaster-risk identification and will juxtapose them with one local approach in order to examine the differences concerning the functions and the purpose of the assessment as well as their impact for policy development. In contrast to an earlier comparative analysis of the three global disaster-risk indicator programmes by Mark Pelling in 2004, which focused primarily on the methodologies used, this paper places more emphasis on aspects of applicability and policy implications and outlines challenges and limitations of the different approaches. Since the assessment and mapping of human vulnerability is less developed than hazard assessment work [Pelling M., 2004. Visions of Risk: A Review of International Indicators of Disaster Risk and its Management. UNDP—Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BRCP), Geneva], this paper focuses in greater depth on how the approaches capture vulnerability. Conclusions will be formulated on how to further enhance vulnerability identification, particularly at the sub-national level.     

Fire risk reduction through a community‐based risk assessment: reflections from Makola Market,Accra, Ghana

This paper explores the level of vulnerability to the hazard of fire that exists in Makola Market in Accra, Ghana, and assesses how this threat can be reduced through a community‐based risk assessment. It examines the perceptions of both market‐stall occupants and primary stakeholders regarding the hazard of fire, and analyses the availability of local assets (coping strategies) with which to address the challenge. Through an evaluation of past instances of fire, as well as in‐depth key stakeholder interviews, field visits, and observations, the study produces a detailed hazard map of the market. It goes on to recommend that policymakers consider short‐to‐long‐term interventions to reduce the degree of risk. By foregrounding the essence of holistic and integrated planning, the paper calls for the incorporation of disaster mitigation measures in the overall urban planning process and for the strict enforcement of relevant building and fire safety codes by responsible public agencies.     

Risk and vulnerability indicators at different scales: Applicability,usefulness and policy implications

This paper outlines selected approaches to measuring risk and vulnerability to hazards of natural origin using indicators and indices. It discusses their applicability, usefulness and policy implications. Indicators and indices have been developed on different scales and for different purposes. The paper will briefly introduce three global approaches to disaster-risk identification and will juxtapose them with one local approach in order to examine the differences concerning the functions and the purpose of the assessment as well as their impact for policy development. In contrast to an earlier comparative analysis of the three global disaster-risk indicator programmes by Mark Pelling in 2004, which focused primarily on the methodologies used, this paper places more emphasis on aspects of applicability and policy implications and outlines challenges and limitations of the different approaches. Since the assessment and mapping of human vulnerability is less developed than hazard assessment work [Pelling M., 2004. Visions of Risk: A Review of International Indicators of Disaster Risk and its Management. UNDP—Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BRCP), Geneva], this paper focuses in greater depth on how the approaches capture vulnerability. Conclusions will be formulated on how to further enhance vulnerability identification, particularly at the sub-national level.     

Capital assets framework for analysing household vulnerability during disaster

This paper examines the vulnerability of households to disasters, using an asset vulnerability framework to represent livelihoods. Such frameworks are widely employed to analyse household poverty and focus on living conditions and well-being rather than money-metric measures of consumption and income. The conceptualisation of household vulnerability is a challenge in current studies on coping with disasters. The paper considers whether a capital assets framework is useful in identifying and assessing household vulnerability in the context of the Wenchuan earthquake in China in 2008. The framework has five categories of assets (financial, human, natural, physical, and social capital) and attempts to measure the resilience and vulnerability of households. When applied to a major disaster, asset-based methods face the problem of heterogeneity of the population, such as with regard to livelihood type or residence. Moreover, the effect of external interventions, such as the provision of relief assistance, must be taken into account.     

农业旱灾脆弱性评价--以北方农牧交错带兴和县为例

基于区域自然灾害系统理论,构建了农业旱灾灾害系统及其脆弱性评价指标体系,建立了农业旱灾脆弱性综合评价模型,指出农业旱灾脆弱性评价是一个过程性评价:灾前-灾中强调区域农业生产系统的易损性,灾中-灾后强调区域里的人应对旱灾的适应性.以地处北方农牧交错带的兴和县为例,进行了农业旱灾脆弱性评价,结果表明:农牧交错带的农业旱灾脆弱性在县域尺度上主要受农牧用地比例的影响,在农户尺度上取决于非农牧收入比例的大小,所以合理、有效的农牧结合发展和非农牧产业发展有利于降低该地区的农业旱灾脆弱性.     

沿海城市自然灾害脆弱性评估研究进展

对于经济发达、人口密集,但自然灾害频发、易受损的沿海城市,自然灾害脆弱性评价研究具有重要的科学价值与现实意义。综述了该领域的国内外研究进展,对我国沿海城市所面临的自然灾害的高风险性提出了综合脆弱性评价理念。     

Making humanitarian relief networks more effective: operational coordination, trust and sense making

Effective coordination of humanitarian assistance activities remains elusive. This paper briefly addresses some of the reasons for what is widely perceived as a coordination dilemma in humanitarian affairs and argues for a new conceptualisation of the issue. Rather than continue to request that more authority be vested in a single organisation to secure coordination through top-down control, it contends that it may be timely to consider whether relief agencies involved in an emergency should be reconceived as social networks and efforts made to achieve changes in their organizational cultures that encourage operational coordination across institutional lines. Since such labours imply the need to trust, this article explores what forms of trust might be employed to promote improved coordination among relief institutions and how those relationships could themselves be conceptualised. Finally, while acknowledging that coordination is not costless, it suggests that its effective pursuit may be advantageous even in scenarios where aid organisations balk at cooperating to secure it.     

农业旱灾形成过程中的承灾体脆弱性分析--以湖南鼎城为例

农业旱灾的形成是降水不足或不均与农业生产系统脆弱性共同作用的结果,承灾体脆弱性的高低会起到“放大“或“缩小“灾情的作用,因此降低承灾体的脆弱性是抗灾减灾的主要和有效途径.选择湖南省鼎城区为研究区,通过分析灾前期-灾中期旱灾的形成过程及其与承灾体脆弱性的关系,分别针对轻度干旱和中重度干旱建立了评价指标体系,采用加权求和法对水田-水稻农业生产系统的脆弱性进行了评价.结果表明,该区的承灾体脆弱性分布存在一定的区域差异,脆弱度由高至低排序为西北岗地区、南部低山/丘陵区、中部平原/岗地区、东北湖/平原区,这一分析结果与实际灾情的分布规律基本一致.通过分析脆弱性分布规律和变化原因,发现地形和灌溉分别是影响灾前期和灾中期承灾体脆弱性的最重要因素,进而提出了具体的减灾防灾建议.     

In acceptance we trust? Conceptualising acceptance as a viable approach to NGO security management

This paper documents current understanding of acceptance as a security management approach and explores issues and challenges non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) confront when implementing an acceptance approach to security management. It argues that the failure of organisations to systematise and clearly articulate acceptance as a distinct security management approach and a lack of organisational policies and procedures concerning acceptance hinder its efficacy as a security management approach. The paper identifies key and cross‐cutting components of acceptance that are critical to its effective implementation in order to advance a comprehensive and systematic concept of acceptance. The key components of acceptance illustrate how organisational and staff functions affect positively or negatively an organisation's acceptance, and include: an organisation's principles and mission, communications, negotiation, programming, relationships and networks, stakeholder and context analysis, staffing, and image. The paper contends that acceptance is linked not only to good programming, but also to overall organisational management and structures.     

Chronic institutional failure and enhanced vulnerability to flash‐floods in the Cuenca Altadel Río Lerma,Mexico

The dominant paradigm in disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies has been seriously contested because of its reliance on interventions based on technocratic expertise. In the Mexican context, the influence of informal practices such as clientelism and cartelisation of the political system produces environmental degradation and vulnerability to disasters within the communities in the study site. This paper contributes to understanding of failed institutional processes and parallel practices that intensify vulnerability to disasters by contrasting the discourses of agents within a peri‐urban community in central Mexico. Employing the Situational Analysis Approach as a methodological framework, the study identifies divergent views and practices within the community, leading to different responses to disasters and to different perceptions regarding institutional performance. In addition, it finds that institutional decision‐making, based only on scientific and technical expertise, has resulted in unintended consequences that influence ongoing vulnerability to floods in the site under review.     

Action-oriented resilience assessment of communities in Chennai,India

Building resilience to disasters is indispensable in cities, like Chennai, India, which are challenged by emerging urban disaster risks caused by impacts of urbanization and higher probability of future disasters due to climate change. In this paper, an action-oriented resilience assessment (AoRA), consisting of 63 actions, divided into 21 parameters and 5 dimensions (physical, social, economic, institutional and natural), is defined which has the objective to enhance the resilience of communities of Chennai to climate-related disasters. On the basis of responses from the selected target group, community leaders (councillors) in the 155 wards, the local government of Chennai is the key stakeholder to implement the proposed actions in the AoRA. However, further findings underpin that a multi-stakeholder approach, involving communities, academia, private organizations and NGOs, is needed to create disaster resilient communities.     

Learning from others: the scope and challenges for participatory disaster risk assessment

This paper develops a framework based on procedural, methodological and ideological elements of participatory vulnerability and risk assessment tools for placing individual approaches within the wide range of work that claims a participatory, local or community orientation. In so doing it draws on relevant experience from other areas of development practice from which the disasters field can learn. Participatory disaster risk assessments are examined for their potential to be empowering, to generate knowledge, to be scaled up, to be a vehicle for negotiating local change and as part of multiple-methods approaches to disaster risk identification and reduction. The paper is a response to an international workshop on Community Risk Assessment organised by ProVention Consortium and the Disaster Mitigation for Sustainable Livelihoods Programme, University of Cape Town. The workshop brought together practitioners and academics to review the challenges and opportunities for participatory methodologies in the field of disaster risk reduction. In conclusion the contribution made by participatory methodologies to global disaster risk reduction assessment and policy is discussed.     

Framework for integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge for disaster risk reduction

A growing awareness of the value of indigenous knowledge has prompted calls for its use within disaster risk reduction. The use of indigenous knowledge alongside scientific knowledge is increasingly advocated but there is as yet no clearly developed framework demonstrating how the two may be integrated to reduce community vulnerability to environmental hazards. This paper presents such a framework, using a participatory approach in which relevant indigenous and scientific knowledge may be integrated to reduce a community's vulnerability to environmental hazards. Focusing on small island developing states it presents an analysis of the need for such a framework alongside the difficulties of incorporating indigenous knowledge. This is followed by an explanation of the various processes within the framework, drawing on research completed in Papua New Guinea. This framework is an important first step in identifying how indigenous and scientific knowledge may be integrated to reduce community vulnerability to environmental hazards.     

Cool Ground for Aid Providers: Towards Better Security Management in Aid Agencies

Although full statistics are lacking, there is an impression that aid personnel are increasingly at risk from random, criminal and even at times targeted violence. The argument here is that the current tendency to reduce an agency's vulnerability mainly through the use of protective procedures and devices may be necessary but is insufficient. Better practice in the management of security is an urgent need. Reducing vulnerability to attack is only one approach; deterring the threat of violence by counter-threat, or seeking increased acceptance for the agency's work and presence are two other approaches. Major skill development is required in the areas of conflict analysis and monitoring, threat assessment and incident analysis, since together these form the basis for appropriate security management. Improved analysis can then inform a conscious choice about which mixture of approaches is most appropriate in a specific context. The paper explores in some detail the factors that influence acceptance, but not the methods and basic principles in the use of counter-threat.     

沿海地区台风灾害系统脆弱性过程诊断与评估以福建省为例——以福建省为例

基于自然灾害系统理论，分析了导致和影响台风灾害系统脆弱性过程的主要因素，并提出了脆弱性的诊断思路。通过分析，建立了台风灾害发生过程和灾害发生以后的脆弱性评估指标体系和评估模型，构建了台风灾害系统脆弱性综合指数模型，并以福建县域为单元，对福建省台风灾害系统脆弱性过程进行评价。研究表明，福建省台风灾害系统脆弱性呈上升趋势，空间上高值区集中分布在沿海地区，有从东部沿海向西部扩展的趋势。反映台风强度和福建人口、经济地区差异显著，建议应该制定区域综合减灾模式，逐步降低脆弱性，提高防御台风灾害能力。     

基于RS与GIS功能互补性的震害评估方法浅析

震害评估是震后对建筑物和生命线工程等易损性,以及对人员伤亡和直接经济损失进行统计评估,实时有效的震灾评估是减少震灾损失的有力途径,意义重大。随着空间遥感技术以及计算机技术和图像处理技术的不断发展,基于数字图像处理的震害评估越来越得到广泛应用。在对RS和GIS技术的介绍的基础上,探讨了二者在震灾评估功能上的互补性,并以特定的方式相结合,建立了由四模块组成的基于RS和GIS的建筑物震害评估系统,得出基于震害提取的损失评估方法。基于震害指数的粗略评估和基于RS图像分类的精细评估方法结合运用,可以实时地、较准确地对建筑物震害损失进行评价。