SOCIAL VULNERABILITY

Social Vulnerability and Emergency Management

Social Vulnerability

Study of hazards involves the concepts of vulnerability, risks, and hazards, with hazards research evolving to include considerations of social vulnerability and resilience. Although public use of the words vulnerability, risk, hazard, and threat has sometimes been interchangeable, each word has its own distinctive definition.

Concept of Social Vulnerability

Vulnerability to hazards varies depending on both the physical and the social setting of a community. Because vulnerability can be defined as the potential for and consequences of casualty or economic losses, it is not necessarily directly related to hazard risk or probability.

Social vulnerability is strongly influenced by ...