Concept Of Social Vulnerability Research Articles

Examining the shifting role of the human in disaster studies

This review essay considers the development of the field of disaster studies and specifically, examines the myriad ways in which the role of the human has shifted during this development. The essay focuses on four major periods of development within disaster studies, including: the hazard-risk paradigm, the bounded rationality paradigm, the concept of social vulnerability and critiques of social vulnerability.

Evidence of the Relationship between Social Vulnerability and the Spread of COVID-19 in Urban Spaces.

Modeling the social-spatial structure of urban spaces can facilitate the development of guidelines aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic while also acting as an instrument that helps decision-making concerning mitigation policies. The modeling process starts with categorization of urban spaces based on the concept of social vulnerability. A model is created based on this concept and the theory of analysis of social areas. Statistical techniques of factor analysis and geostatistics are applied. This generates a map of social differentiation that, when related to data on the evolution of the contagion, generates a multidimensional model of social vulnerability. The application of this model towards people (social structure) and the environment where they live (spatial structure) is specified. Our model assumes the uniqueness of cities, and it is intended to be a broadly applicable model that can be extrapolated to other urban areas if pertinent revisions are made. Our work demonstrates that aspects of the social and urban structures may be validly used to analyze and explain the spatial spread of COVID-19.

Social vulnerability associated with sanitation and its connection to environmental injustice in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in Palestine: الضعف الاجتماعي المرتبط بالصرف الصحي واتصاله بالظلم البيئي في الضفة الغربية وقطاع غزة في فلسطين

This paper aimed to discuss the concept of social vulnerability associated with sanitation and its connection to environmental injustice in a framework of governance as a new way to manage natural resources, which includes the participation of social actors in planning environmental policies, by investigating how the social vulnerability associated with sanitation and its connection to environmental injustice in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in Palestine, and the paper analyzes cases of inequality within two axes. The first axis is based on the use of the methodology of organizing information that is carried out through bibliographic review, and the second axis is based on the statistical analysis of the relevant tables, which showed an increasing mathematical function by increasing independent variables that are closely related, noting that The results of the analysis showed a close and increasing correlation between the method of connecting wastewater to the sewage networks with poverty rates based on the area of ​​residence (rural, camp, urban). The analysis focuses on the two axes of the paper on taking into account the essential role of public policies in combating social and environmental inequalities, especially those related to the arbitrary practices of the Israeli occupation. One of the most important results of the analysis was that the social vulnerability associated with sanitation is related to environmental injustice in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and is exacerbated by the arbitrary practices of the Israeli occupation, especially environmental ones. The paper concluded with the importance of taking into account the integration of water policies with those related to agriculture and economic works, and the inclusion of all socio-economic factors within specialized programs within the framework of partnership with institutions, including private sector institutions, to develop joint activities between them, and to prioritize safe environmental sanitation for the poor population, and areas Low-income people and those most affected by the arbitrary policies of the Israeli occupation, in addition the paper recommended the importance of establishing programs to ensure social justice, combat differences in service levels, adopt the principle of differentiation between users by imposing fees on water uses, and manage the balance between preserving resources and promoting multiple uses for them.

Community vulnerability perspective on robust protection planning in interdependent infrastructure networks

Critical infrastructure networks, including water, power, communication, and transportation, among others, are necessary to society’s functionality. In recent years, the threat of different types of disruptions to such infrastructure networks has become an increasingly important problem to address. Due to existing interdependencies, damage to a small area of one of the networks could have far-reaching effects on the ability to meet demand across the entire system. Common disruption scenarios include, among others, intentional malevolent attacks, natural disasters, and random failures. Similar works have focused on only one type of scenario, but combining a variety of disruptions may lead to more realistic results. Additionally, the concept of social vulnerability, which describes an area’s ability to prepare for and respond to a disruption, must be included. This should promote not only the protection of the most at-risk components but also ensure that socially vulnerable communities are given adequate resources. This work provides a decision making framework to determine the allocation of defensive resources that accounts for all these factors. Accordingly, we propose a multi-objective mathematical model with the objectives of: (i) minimizing the vulnerability of a system of interdependent infrastructure networks, and (ii) minimizing the total cost of the resource allocation strategy. Moreover, to account for uncertainty in the proposed model, this paper incorporates a means to address robustness in finding the most adaptable network protection plan to reduce the vulnerability of the system of interdependent networks to a variety of disruption scenarios. The proposed work is illustrated with an application to social vulnerability and interdependent power, gas, and water networks in Shelby County, Tennessee.

Communication-related vulnerability to disasters: A heuristic framework

The concept of social vulnerability has been increasingly applied in disaster literature, but its communicative drivers have remained understudied. In this article, we put forward a heuristic framework for explaining how communication-related factors may adversely affect people's capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters. This will help researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in the field of disasters and crises to systematically identify individual, social-structural, and situational factors of vulnerability that shape how people access, understand, and act upon information about hazards. We integrate ideas from recent literature on information disorders – various forms and effects of false or harmful information that are characteristic to modern communication ecosystems – to improve our understanding of how the new media environments may transform the ways people learn about hazards and cope with disasters.

Social vulnerability and local level assessments: a new approach for planning

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a new index of social vulnerability (SV), based on local level data [statistical blocks (SBs)]. This same methodology was applied before at the municipal level, which is a level of analysis that under-evaluates local spots of high SV, by one side, and generalizes the coverage of support capacity equipment and infrastructure. The geographical level of detail of the input data allows to overcome those limitations and better inform infra-municipal risk practitioners and planners.Design/methodology/approachThe assessment of SV in this paper adopts an inductive approach. The research context of this conceptual and methodological proposal derived from the need to operationalize the concept of SV as a planning tool. This approach required to distinguish between the components of criticality and support capability, as their assessment provides knowledge with distinct applications in risk management. The statistical procedure is based on principal components analysis, using the SB as the unit of analysis.FindingsSupport capability acts as a counter-weight of criticality. This understanding is well illustrated in the mapping of each component and the final score of SV. The methodological approach allowed to identify the drivers of criticality and support capability in each SB, aiding decision-makers and risk practitioners in finding the vulnerability forcers that require more attention (public or private social equipment, housing policies, emergency anticipatory measures, etc.).Originality/valueAn original approach to SV assessments is the consideration of the components of criticality and support capability. The results allow for the definition of adapted and specific strategies of risk mitigation and civil protection measures to distinct types of risk groups and by different stakeholders and risk practitioners. By predicting the impact and the recovery capacity of communities, the results have applicability in several fields of risk governance as, for example, risk communication and involvement, social intervention (health, education and housing), emergency response, contingency planning, early warning and spatial planning.

Metodología para determinar la vulnerabilidad socio-territorial frente a la pobreza

En conjunto con la Fundación Superación de la Pobreza y en agradecimiento al proyecto de Investigación DICYT N° 091312YR de la Universidad de Santiago (USACH), se trabaja sobre el concepto de vulnerabilidad social relacionada estrechamente con los territorios urbanos y las problemáticas que estos presentan. Una vez definido el concepto de Vulnerabilidad Social Territorial se zonifica el territorio, en Macro-zonas de estudio y, según su división político administrativa, con el fin de identificar factores y variables determinantes que servirán de insumo para generar la propuesta metodológica que permita diagnosticar e identificar los diferentes niveles de vulnerabilidad social a escala regional y comunal, considerando los efectos territoriales. Esto ayudaría de forma más eficiente que las metodologías actuales a la focalización y mejoras de políticas, planes y/o programas del Gobierno, que vayan efectivamente dirigidas a los sectores de mayor rezago y escasos recursos.

Decennial comparison of changes in social vulnerability: A municipal analysis in support of risk management

The concept of Social Vulnerability (SV) is characterized and distinguished by its complexity and multidisciplinarity. This concept takes into account the specific characteristics of the individual and his social and economic relations, as well as the physical environment where he is inserted. These differentiating characteristics make Social Vulnerability (SV) an indispensable work tool in the process of characterizing and understanding the degree of exposure of communities, as well as evaluating their capacity for resilience and recovery from hazardous events.This paper presents a comparison between the SV performed in 2008 with the results obtained in 2017 for the 278 municipalities of mainland Portugal. The methodology was based on the work developed by the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, which is distinguished by the fact that SV is composed of two components: Criticity and Support Capability. The analysis of SV and its components was done using Principal Components Analysis (PCA) starting from an initial set of 235 variables (90 for Criticality and 145 for Support Capability).With respect to Criticality, the results point out the importance of factors related to the economic condition, employment and factors related to the disadvantaged population and risk groups. Support Capability is strongly influenced by the population density and the most relevant factors for the final results are those related to civil protection response, economic and environmental dynamism and logistic and service capacity. Regarding the SV spatial distribution, the highest values are located mainly in the central and northern parts of the country, with emphasis on the Douro river valley and surrounding municipalities; also a general decrease of SV was recorded in the southern regions from 2008 to 2017.

Assessing Social and Territorial Vulnerability on Real Estate Submarkets

The concept of social vulnerability is widely studied in literature in order to identify particularly socially fragile sectors of the population. For this purpose, several studies have adopted indexes to measure the economic and social conditions of the population. The aim of this paper is to investigate the link between social and territorial vulnerability and the real estate market, by means of an exploratory analysis related to the possibility that spatial analyses can help to identify spatial latent components and variables in the process of price determination. A three phase approach is proposed, using the geographical segmentation of Turin and its related submarkets as a case study. After the identification and analysis of a set of three social and territorial vulnerability indicators, a traditional hedonic approach was applied to measure their influence on property listing prices. Subsequently, spatial analyses were investigated to focus on the spatial components of the indicators and property prices; their spatial autocorrelation was measured and the presence of spatial dependence was taken into account by applying a spatial regression. Results demonstrated that two indicators were spatially correlated with property prices and had a significant and negative influence on them. The proposed approach may help not only to identify the most vulnerable urban areas characterized by the lowest property prices, but also to support the future modification to the actual geographical segmentation of Turin.

Construcción metodológica para determinar la vulnerabilidad socio-territorial frente a la pobreza

En conjunto con la Fundación Superación de la Pobreza y en agradecimiento al proyecto de Investigación DICYT N° 091312YR de la Universidad de Santiago, USACH, se trabaja sobre el concepto de vulnerabilidad social2 relacionada estrechamente con los territorios urbanos y las problemáticas que estos presentan. Una vez definido el concepto de Vulnerabilidad Social Territorial se zonifica el territorio, en Macro-zonas de estudio —y según su división político administrativa— con el fin de identificar factores y variables determinantes que servirán de insumo para generar la propuesta metodológica que permita diagnosticar e identificar los diferentes niveles de vulnerabilidad social a escala regional y comunal, considerando los efectos territoriales. Esto ayudaría de forma más eficiente que las metodologías actuales a la focalización y mejoras de políticas, planes y/o programas del Gobierno, que vayan efectivamente dirigidas a los sectores de mayor rezago y escasos recursos.

The right to water and sanitation as a tool for health promotion of vulnerable groups.

Resumo O conceito de promoção da saúde, baseado nos determinantes sociais, alinha-se com princípios dos direitos humanos como: participação social, responsabilidade, transparência e não discriminação. O Direito humano à água e ao esgotamento sanitário (DHAES) foi aprovado em 2010 pela Assembleia Geral das Nações Unidas e Conselho de Direitos Humanos, e visa garantir acesso à água e ao esgotamento sanitário sem discriminação para toda a população. Dito isso, o presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar de que forma o referencial dos direitos humanos, em especial do DHAES, pode ser mobilizado para fortalecer a promoção da saúde de populações vulneráveis. Para isso, inicia apresentando a relação entre saúde e direitos humanos, em seguida demonstra como o conceito de vulnerabilidade social se baseia nestes, e finaliza mostrando a relação entre o DHAES e a promoção da saúde de grupos vulneráveis.

Frailty and Social Vulnerability.

Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors contribute to health. Intrinsic factors are familiar topics in health research and include medical conditions, medications, genetics and frailty, while extrinsic factors stem from social and physical environments. This chapter builds on others in this volume, in which a deficit accumulation approach to frailty has been described. The concept of social vulnerability is presented. Social vulnerability stems from the accumulation of multiple and varied social problems and has bidirectional importance as a risk factor for poor health outcomes and as a pragmatic consideration for health care provision and planning. Importantly, the social factors that contribute to overall social vulnerability come into play at different levels of influence (individual, family and friends, peer groups, institutions and society at large). A social ecology perspective is discussed as a useful framework for considering social vulnerability, as it allows for attention to each of these levels of influence. Tying together what we currently understand about frailty (in medical and basic science models) and social vulnerability, the scaling potential of deficit accumulation is discussed, given that deficit accumulation can be understood to occur at many levels, from the (sub-)cellular level to tissues, organisms/complex systems and societies.

Social vulnerability as a predictor of mortality and disability: cross-country differences in the survey of health, aging, and retirement in Europe (SHARE).

Social factors are important for health; the concept of social vulnerability considers them holistically and can be quantified using a social vulnerability index (SVI). Investigate the SVI in relation to mortality and disability, independent of frailty, in middle-aged and older European adults, and examine how this relationship differs across countries. 18,289 community-dwelling participants 50 years and older from SHARE wave 1 (2004) were included in our sample. A 32-item SVI and a 57-item frailty index were calculated for individuals as the proportion of deficits present out of the total number considered. Countries were grouped based on their social model: Nordic (Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden), Continental (France, Austria, Belgium, Germany) and Mediterranean (Greece, Italy, Spain). Outcome measures were 5-year mortality and disability (≥1 dependency with activities of daily living) at wave 4 (2011-2012). High social vulnerability (highest quartile) predicted mortality (HR = 1.25, 95 % CI 1.07-1.45), and disability (OR = 1.36, 95 % CI 1.15-1.62) after controlling for age, sex, baseline disability and frailty level. When analyses were split by social model, social vulnerability remained a significant predictor of mortality for Continental (HR = 1.36, CI 1.05-1.77) and Mediterranean (HR = 1.33, CI 1.03-1.72) countries, but not the Nordic (HR = 1.02, CI 0.76-1.37) countries; the same pattern was observed for disability (Nordic OR = 1.06, CI 0.72-1.55; Continental OR = 1.53, CI 1.20-1.96; Mediterranean OR = 1.58, CI 1.13-2.23). Social vulnerability was a significant predictor of mortality and disability, though when controlling for frailty, this relationship varied by the social model of the country.

La mujer salvadoreña y su derecho a la salud: omisiones, indiferencia y vulnerabilidad social

This article is about the concept of social vulnerability, in the contex-tualizing the situation of woman in the Latin-American region, after which we center particularly in the case of the Salvadorian women and their human right in healthcare.This case study makes an approach of the women situation of disadvantage and powerlessness inside a legal system which excludes them as decision subjects, towards their own body and puts their human rights on a second level. This work seeks to present the concept of vulnerability as a multifactorial problem which is reflected in every environment and structure of the societies. This concept becomes more visible in groups of women in conditions of social exclusion, poverty and marginalization.

Political regulations and social perception of natural risks: “risk society”, the Czech experience and the European context

Recently, the political and social notion of natural risks and disasters has gained increasing attention, partly as a result of high-magnitude disaster events in last decades. In this regard, the concept of social vulnerability has been incorporated into international legal frameworks and strategies of disaster risk reduction, emphasizing that the effective ways to reduce natural risks are inherently related to social action at different institutional levels. The shift in research agenda towards vulnerability assessment and social notion of natural risks seems to be less intensive in Czechia, however, which is due to epistemological traditions in geosciences and regional studies in the country. Therefore, the background aim of the study is to raise a discussion on emerging research themes for geoscientists and regionalists in the country-wide perspective through the two specific aims. First, we evaluated the success of Czech political representatives in implementing the international legal frameworks and strategies into the national and regional policies. Our results of analysis of strategic documents and legal frameworks suggest that although the issue of natural risks is well incorporated into the strategic documents and legal frameworks in Czechia, these documents do not sufficiently reflect the international agreement on the necessity of a conceptual shift towards a social vulnerability concept within disaster risk reduction. Second, we analysed social perception of natural risks in a case study of the city of Usti nad Labem in northern Czechia. On one hand, the analysis has revealed that the issue of natural risks, represents an important short-term decisive factor for local community. On the other hand, the long-term perception of natural risks, as analysed using the econometric data about the impacts of natural hazards on real estate property, has shown that the social perception of risk, during the periods between the individual disaster events and after these events is relatively weak. This may represent a significant constraint for the implementation of community-based strategies of disaster risk reduction.

Soziale Verwundbarkeit gegenüber Hochwasser: Lehren aus der Elbeflut 2002Social Vulnerability to Flooding: Lessons Learned from the Elbe Flood 2002

Compared to the well-established concept “vulnerability”, there has been less research on “social vulnerability”, particularly with respect to highly developed welfare states. Conducting an in-depth study on the consequences of the 2002 Elbe flood in three German communities, the paper tests the applicability of the concept of social vulnerability in a European context. The research was based on the assumption that it is an expression of social inequality. Yet, socially vulnerable groups were not clearly distinguishable. This does not suggest, however, that social vulnerability is not relevant in the European context. Rather, it is the outcome of a complex web of drivers that are of both social and contextual origin. Three implications are outlined for future studies: the need to integrate top-down and bottom-up oriented approaches to assess social vulnerability, to embed our understanding of social vulnerability better in overall societal transformation processes, and to consider existing governance and management systems and their interrelations as well as their consequences for social vulnerability.

Different forms exist: the concept of vulnerability in people with deficiency

ABSTRACTObjective: to approach the concept of social vulnerability and belonging to a community in conjunction with the theme of people with disabilities. Methods: this is a descriptive study, based on paper from the political, social and health areas as well as on books and journals, and the authors' experience to reflective analysis regarding the concept of socially vulnerable and disabled people. Results: we infer from this study that individuals with disabilities are doubly victimized and invisible, even with a broad law that relates their rights and guarantees. Conclusion: the individual with disabilities misses the point of belonging and recognition of a community, a fact which makes it vulnerable to develop feelings of low self-esteem, increased susceptibility to social isolation, inaccessibility to services offered, work and easier to become victims of violence in its various forms. Descriptors: social vulnerability; visually impaired persons; community development. RESUMOObjetivo: abordar o conceito de vulnerabilidade social e pertencimento a uma comunidade em conjunção com a temática das pessoas com deficiência. Métodos: estudo descritivo para o qual foram consultados artigos das áreas da política, social e da saúde, em livros e periódicos, bem como a experiência dos autores para proceder com a análise reflexiva acerca do conceito de vulnerabilidade social e pessoas com deficiência. Resultados: pudemos depreender que os indivíduos com deficiência, são duplamente vitimados e invisibilizados, mesmo tendo uma ampla legislação que relaciona seus direitos e garantias. Conclusões: o indivíduo com deficiência passa ao largo do pertencimento e do reconhecimento de uma comunidade, fato que o torna vulnerável para desenvolver sentimentos de baixa auto-estima, maior suscetibilidade ao isolamento social, a não acessibilidade a serviços oferecidos, ao trabalho e mais fáceis de tornarem vítimas de violência, nas suas mais diversas formas. Descritores: vulnerabilidade social; portadores de deficiência visual; desenvolvimento da comunidade. RESUMENObjetivo: abordar el concepto de vulnerabilidad social y la pertenencia a una comunidad en relación con el tema de las personas con discapacidad. Métodos: el estúdio descriptivo se consultó a los artículos en los ámbitos de la vida política, social y de salud de libros y revistas, y la experiencia de los autores a un análisis reflexivo sobre el concepto de las personas socialmente vulnerables y discapacitados. Resultados: se deducen de este estudio que los individuos con discapacidad son víctimas por partida doble e invisible, incluso con una ley amplia que se refiere a sus derechos y garantías. Conclusión: la persona con discapacidad pierde el sentido de pertenencia y reconocimiento de una comunidad, un hecho que la hace vulnerable a desarrollar sentimientos de baja autoestima, mayor susceptibilidad al aislamiento social, la inaccesibilidad a los servicios ofrecidos, el trabajo y más fácil de convertirse en víctimas de la violencia en sus diversas formas. Descriptores: vulnerabilidad social; personas com daño visual; desarrollo de la comunidad.

Exploring the Theoretical Interface of Climate Change and Resource Dependency: Application to the Vulnerability of Boreal Forest Regions

This paper addresses the combined effects of two sources of disturbance on the boreal forest – climate change and the economic relations of industrial forestry. It describes a theoretical blueprint constructed of concepts from the theory of dissipative structures (derived from the discipline of physical chemistry) and world-systems theory (derived from the discipline of sociology) into a proposed integrated theory pivoting on the concept of social vulnerability. The goal is to examine the key concepts of this theory – vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity – as elements of the complex systems perspective provided by dissipative structure principles. The focus on social vulnerability provides the means to establish the role of external economic linkages relevant to industrial forestry – the core/periphery relations of the world-system – as they influence the social vulnerability of the boreal forest SESs. These systems are posited as embedded peripheries, following world-system criteria, and as the focal scale of analysis within a larger hierarchically organized dissipative structure. The goal is to suggest and stimulate ideas for further discussion and exploration, motivated by the premise that any successful climate change mitigation efforts depend on having sound theoretical foundations on which to stand.