Vulnerability can be described as the extent to which a community, structure, service or geographic area is likely to be damaged or disrupted by the impact of a particular hazard, mainly on account of its nature, construction and proximity to hazardous terrain or a disaster-prone area. It describes the characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or asset that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard.
These characteristics arise from various physical, social, economic and environmental factors. Some examples of the characteristics include poor design and construction of buildings, inadequate protection of assets, lack of public information and awareness, limited official recognition of risks and preparedness measures and disregard for wise environmental management, among others.
There are mainly four types of vulnerability, namely physical vulnerability, economic vulnerability, social vulnerability and environmental vulnerability.
Others include cultural, educational and political vulnerability.
According to the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), physical vulnerability may be determined by aspects such as population density levels, remoteness of a settlement, the site, design and materials used for critical infrastructure and for housing. For instance, wooden homes are less likely to collapse in an earthquake, but are more vulnerable to fire.
Economic vulnerability advances the thinking that the level of vulnerability is highly dependent upon the economic status of individuals, communities and nations. The poor are usually more vulnerable to disasters because they lack the resources to build sturdy structures that effectively protect them from the negative impacts of disasters. For instance, poorer families may live in squatter settlements as they may not afford decent areas due to costs. They do not have the essential safety nets to recover as the affluent communities do.
Social vulnerability refers to the different capacity of groups and individuals to deal with hazards, based on their positions. In other words, it is inability of people, organisations and societies to withstand adverse impacts of hazards due to characteristics inherent in social interactions, institutions and systems of cultural values. This means that some sections of the population are more vulnerable than others. The vulnerable ones include women, children, the elderly, the physically and mentally challenged.
Environmental vulnerability focuses on natural resource depletion and resource degradation as key aspects of environmental vulnerability. Examples include land degradation, deforestation, desertification, wildfires, loss of biodiversity, land, air and water pollution, ozone depletion, sea level rise, among others.
Other types of vulnerability include cultural vulnerability, educational vulnerability, attitudinal vulnerability and political vulnerability.
In view of the discussion in this entry, it should be clear that the extent to which a population is affected by a disaster does not purely lie in the physical components of vulnerability, but is contextual also to the prevailing social, economic as well as environmental conditions and its consequential effect on human activities within a given society.
A disaster happens when a hazard impacts on a vulnerable population and causes damage, casualties and disruption of services, among other things. This implies that when a hazard is properly managed, we can prevent disasters or reduce the negative impacts of disasters.
Human activity can also exacerbate the disaster impacts through increasing vulnerability. There are several situations that can increase vulnerability to disasters, for instance deforestation as a result of agricultural expansion, wood extraction i.e. logging or wood harvest for domestic fuel or charcoal, and infrastructure expansion and urbanisation leaving unprotected soils. Heavy and sustained rains, usually as a result of cyclones, impact on unprotected soils, causing mudslides, landslides, floods, and avalanches leading to injuries and loss of life. Likewise, building homes in high-risk places makes people more vulnerable.
In conclusion, by understanding our vulnerability at any level, we reckon the fact that disaster risk not only depends on the severity of hazard or the number of people or assets exposed, but that it is also a reflection of the susceptibility of people and economic assets to suffer loss and damage. By identifying their vulnerabilities, community members identify strategies for immediate and longer-term disaster risk reduction, as well as identifying what they can do themselves to reduce disaster risk and where they need additional resources and external assistance.
