A TODIM-based approach for the assessment of social vulnerability in Jiangsu province from 2012 to 2017

Social vulnerability assessment is of great significance for risk management and reduction. Carrying out the assessment is beneficial to the sustainability of the development of society and the economy. For this purpose, Jiangsu province in China is taken as the study area to explore the social vulnerability assessment at a city level. A framework has been constructed from three dimensions of demographics, economics, and social security. In our study, a new approach based on the maximizing deviation method and TODIM model is proposed to evaluate social vulnerability in Jiangsu province. For the sake of analysis, we divide 13 cities of Jiangsu province into three parts, namely the southern part, central part, and northern part, according to the geographical location. As a result, the north part performance of social vulnerability is the worst among the three regions. The average of the northern part has always obviously exceeded the others of Jiangsu province from 2012 to 2017, which indicates that the north part is the most vulnerable to natural hazards. In addition, the performance of the southern part is relatively better than that of the central region. Especially, Suqian has always been at the bottom from 2012 to 2017, which reveals the ability to withstand natural disasters is the most insufficient. Our findings also imply that social vulnerability is related to local economic development to some extent.

Comparative analysis of the social vulnerability assessment to climate change applied to fisheries from Spain and Turkey

The aim of this study is to assess the climate effects on fisheries from a bottom-up approach based on fishers’ fishing experience, knowledge, and perceptions. To perform this task, a social vulnerability assessment was conducted in two different fishing areas: one in Spain and the other one in Turkey. The vulnerability was measured using the collected data and information through a structured questionnaire, and surveys were carried out among fishers in the Castelló (Spain) and the Aegean Sea (Turkey) between 2018 and 2019. Overall, the results indicated that the two studied regions have a moderate to high vulnerability and that the Aegean Sea was slightly more vulnerable than Castelló. It was also found that storms and temperature are the main climatic stressors that affect the fishing sector, and the economic indicators such as revenue from fishing in both regions showed high degrees of sensitivity. To reduce the vulnerability to climate change, adaptive measures should be implemented while taking into consideration the specific socio-economic and institutional characteristics of each region. In conclusion, the effects of climate change on the fishing sector and their social vulnerability are diverse. Consequently, there is no single climate measure that can minimize the vulnerability of fishing sectors in different regions.

Social Vulnerability Assessment for Landslide Hazards in Malaysia: A Systematic Review Study

Landslides represent one of the world’s most dangerous and widespread risks, annually causing thousands of deaths and billions of dollars worth of damage. Building on and around hilly areas in many regions has increased, and it poses a severe threat to the physical infrastructure and people living within such zones. Quantitative assessment of social vulnerability in Malaysia is worrying because it has been given less attention than hazard-related studies. Therefore, this study’s objective is to find out the indicators used for social vulnerability assessment in the context of a landslide in Malaysia. The analysis is critical for understanding the measures of social vulnerability, given that the incorporation of climate change and disaster risk mitigation issues in urban planning and management are considered priorities in ensuring a stable population growth and avoiding economic disruption. A systematic study on the Scopus and Web of Science repositories was conducted based on the PRISMA Report analysis method. This article concluded that there are six important indicators of social vulnerability in the context of landslide in Malaysia.

Comparative social vulnerability assessment in Purba Medinipur district, West Bengal, India

Social vulnerability assessment is an important element for disaster risk reduction system. Social vulnerability depends on physical, social, economic, environmental factors, etc., which determine the susceptibility of community against the impact of hazards. Over the past two decades, social vulnerability has been measured by using different methodologies. The present work portrays a comparative assessment of social vulnerability methodologies in the Purba Medinipur district located in the eastern part of India. Different standardization techniques of data transformation like, Z score, maximum value, and min-max rescaling have been employed to compare and examine social vulnerability in the study area. The principal aim of this work is to analyze the results between the three methodologies adopted, and identify the vulnerable blocks in the district. The result shows that relationships between three methodologies are moderately strong to very strong and Sutahata block is identified as the most vulnerable block in the Purba Medinipur district.

An integrated social vulnerability assessment of riverine flood hazards in Shelby County, Tennessee

Purpose Vulnerability studies are commonly used to inform planning, as cities and regions seek to build resilience to environmental hazards. In Shelby County, Tennessee, socioeconomic census tract data were mapped to identify the socially vulnerable population and places to underpin strategies in the Mid-South Regional Resilience Master Plan (RRMP). While this is an important step in identifying vulnerability in the county, this paper aims to enhance the local analysis through an integrated approach that considers both social factors and environmental hazards in assessing vulnerability. Design/methodology/approach This paper conducts a social vulnerability assessment by integrating a social vulnerability index with risk exposure analysis at the census tract level to identify the population and places vulnerable to riverine flooding in Shelby County. Findings The analysis reveals that social vulnerability assessments that do not relate socioeconomic factors to specific environmental hazards such as riverine flooding underestimate the population and places that are vulnerable. For Shelby County, this has the tendency to undermine the prioritization and effectiveness of strategies to build resilience to riverine flooding and can worsen preexisting marginalization. Practical implications This paper recommends integrated vulnerability assessments for each of the environmental hazards identified in the Mid-South RRMP to augment existing resilience efforts in the county. Originality/value This paper enhances the understanding of social vulnerability assessments by consolidating the need for integrated assessment frameworks as basis for resiliency planning.

Social Vulnerability Assessment for Flood Risk Analysis

This paper proposes a methodology for the analysis of social vulnerability to floods based on the integration and weighting of a range of exposure and resistance (coping capacity) indicators. It focuses on the selection and characteristics of each proposed indicator and the integration procedure based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) on a large scale. The majority of data used for the calculation of the indicators comes from open public data sources, which allows the replicability of the method in any area where the same data are available. To demonstrate the feasibility of the method, a study case is presented. The flood social vulnerability assessment focuses on the municipality of Ponferrada (Spain), a medium-sized town that has high exposure to floods due to potential breakage of the dam located upstream. A detailed mapping of the social vulnerability index is generated at the urban parcel scale, which shows an affected population of 34,941 inhabitants. The capability of working with such detailed units of analysis for an entire medium-sized town provides a valuable tool to support flood risk planning and management.