From Application to Evaluation: Addressing the Usefulness of Resilience and Vulnerability

Abstract

What are the benefits of the resilience and vulnerability concepts for disaster risk management? This question goes beyond the previous stage of enquiring what exactly both terms and concepts mean, how they can be measured or applied. We aim to demonstrate the potential of applied resilience and vulnerability research for disaster risk management (DRM), while addressing accompanying challenges. This special issue grew out of the idea to generate an overview on the state-of-the-art of resilience and vulnerability studies in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In the past years we have experienced a huge demand from our students as well as academic and professional colleagues for an overview of studies of and experiences with resilience or vulnerability within a specific hazard, country, methodological or other context. Based on this we developed the idea to compile and structure the existing state-ofthe-art within what we termed an ‘‘Atlas of Vulnerability and Resilience Research,’’ aiming at promoting different types of knowledge, knowledge transfer between academic disciplines and between science, policy, and practice, and underlining the role of education, learning, and communication. In order to prepare such a compendium we started to spread the idea and build up a network. As a first milestone, in November 2012 we were invited by the German disaster network (KatNet—Katastrophennetzwerk) to jointly conduct a symposium on the introductory question. Around 100 participants from social and natural science disciplines and practitioners from the private sector, civil protection, and emergency relief organizations came together. Some of the key outcomes of that symposium are documented here for an international audience, thanks to the International Journal of Disaster Risk Science. The authors of this special issue cover different concepts, methods, and experiences. They offer a look into recent concepts and applied studies in various disciplines. In addition to six research articles, two short essays offer provocative and alternative views on individual aspects of benefits and challenges that characterize resilience and vulnerability research and application. Within this special issue it is not possible to adequately answer the introductory question, neither can the selected articles represent even the core range of disciplines, fields, concepts, methods, countries, or research contexts of resilience and vulnerability in DRM. Rather, the articles highlight some important issues, and share a discussion of the potential benefits and challenges of vulnerability and resilience for DRM as well as common themes: the appreciation of different types of knowledge, knowledge transfer, education, learning, and communication. The article with our co-author Sylvia Kruse focuses on how the concepts of resilience and vulnerability are used in science, policy, and practice. We aim to identify and systemize some benefits and challenges and address the need to use criteria of how the benefits of both concepts for DRM can be evaluated. The article provides a background for the reasons to compile such a special issue, and discusses the roles of resilience and vulnerability in science and their usage in different European and UN policy fields. A survey of the KatNet symposium participants reflects some opinions on the benefits and challenges of the concepts of resilience and vulnerability. A. Fekete (&) Risk and Crisis Management Section, Cologne University of Applied Sciences, 50679 Cologne, Germany e-mail: alexander.fekete@fh-koeln.de