Social vulnerability to natural hazards in urban systems: An application in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic)

The concept of risk has become increasingly complex, and has been used not only in relation to the natural features of a region, but also to its socio-economic context. In this conceptualization, the latter directly influences the capacity of a community to cope with, recover from, and adapt to natural hazards. Conceiving vulnerability as a...

Recommendations for flood risk management with communities at risk

The paper draws lessons from our empirical investigations in Germany, Italy and England/Wales in a very specific perspective: It formulates recommendations for flood risk management with people at risk. Thus it tries to shed light on the views of this important – but often neglected – group of stakeholders. Our addressees are flood risk...

Risk construction and social vulnerability in an Italian Alpine Region. Country Report Italy

The report presents the findings of focus-groups and questionnaire surveys in settlements at flood-risk and recently flooded, respectively. As far as the quantitative surveys are concerned, data regard the sites located in the Trento, Bolzano/Bozen and Udine areas

Social vulnerability and the 2002 flood. Country report Germany (Mulde river)

The report discusses the findings of a questionnaire survey carried out in five localities of the Mulde catchment (Germany) in 2005 (N=404). All these settlements were heavily affected by the 2002 August flood. Both an event- and a phase-sensitive approach are applied from a bottom-up perspective of the people affected. This specific...

Social Indicator Set

The report begins by reviewing literature on vulnerability and resilience to disasters. ‘Vulnerability’ has emerged as a central concept for understanding what it is about the condition of people that enables a hazard to become a disaster. True flood prevention and mitigation need to address not only hydrological factors, but also the economic,...