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Since the late 1980s, social theorists championed for the birth of a new era, in which societies were increasingly exposed to growing global risks. The presence of increasing risks including natural disasters, technological errors, terrorist attacks, nuclear wars and environmental degradation suggests that human beings are becoming increasingly vulnerable. Therefore, an understanding of vulnerability is crucial. Vulnerability is often considered as the potential to suffer from physical attacks. This approach, however, has limited capacity to explain many forms of suffering including not only physical aspects, but also mental, social, economic, political and social dimensions. This chapter draws on the vulnerability literature to present an overarching framework for the book. It starts with an outline of the concept origins, then discusses its relationship with the risk society thesis before forming conceptualisation. The chapter then points out the key similarities and differences between vulnerability and other concepts such as risk, disaster, poverty, security and resilience. The authors rework an existing “security” framework to develop a new definition of the concept of vulnerability. Finally, the authors look into the root causes and the formation of vulnerability within social systems.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the vulnerability of communities prone to earthquake hazards in Baluchistan at the community and household levels and identify the determinants accounting for the vulnerability of the communities. Baluchistan is vulnerable to potential seismic risk and has recently suffered huge economic and property losses due to the October 2008 earthquake.

The study is based on household surveys, field observations, key informant interviews and focus-group discussions for the assessment of community vulnerability to earthquakes.

The analysis revealed that the community is vulnerable to earthquake hazards both at the community and household levels. The logistic regression model identified three variables, namely, ownership of residential unit, family size and household income, as the most important factors in influencing community vulnerability to earthquake hazards.

The paper may help emergency managers, policymakers and local government authorities to implement building codes, urban planning by-laws and projects and activities to empower communities for disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction.

The paper concludes that for earthquake safety, building regulations and spatial planning by-laws should be implemented and monitored rigorously. Community preparedness is essential for enhancing people’s awareness against future earthquake hazards in the area.

Ever since human society developed, environmental and social changes have led to major challenges that must be dealt with. Some of these major challenges are seen as “disasters,” for which a definition that is frequently used is similar to “A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources” (UNISDR, 2004; see, e.g., Quarantelli, 1998, and Furedi, 2007, for discussions on the meaning(s) of “disaster”). From witnessing disasters and being forced to work through the aftermath, humanity has been shifting toward trying to reduce disasters’ impacts or to avert them entirely. This field has the modern-day interpretation of “disaster risk reduction,” defined as “The conceptual framework of elements considered with the possibilities to minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout a society, to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development” (UNISDR, 2004).

Tanjung Mas, an urban village located in the northern part of Semarang city, has been facing a major impact of coastal inundation occurring along North Java Coastline. This by-product of global climate change is also affecting a 37-hectares slum, one of the largest slums in Semarang city. As the coastal flood tends to escalate every year, the affected areas must have a coping ability to reduce its impact, while also having adequate resources to recover. Considering Tanjung Mas’ dense demographic condition and its function as the city’s seaport, social vulnerability and capability play a significant role in mitigating and recovering flood impacts, in supplement to local government’s effort of strengthening the Northern Java Seawall. Therefore, this study aims to scored and correlated Tanjung Mas’ social vulnerability index (SoVI) and community capability index to assess how well its population can recover from the tidal flood in the future.

This study used the SoVI framework analysis to synthesize relevant social vulnerability indicators and community capability indicators in Tanjung Mas. The two sets of indicators were correlated with Pearson R-squared correlation method to seek a possible non-causal relation. Bivariate indices mapping method exhibit the SoVI and community capability index spatially to show every area’s vulnerability and capability level.

The vulnerability and capability level in Tanjung Mas vary within its smaller area, as six combinations of social vulnerability and community capability level were found. The worst combination was found on areas closer to the coastline, with high social vulnerability and low community capability level. These areas need to be strengthened in both its capability and coping ability toward coastal flood to realize a resilient community.

This study will be useful for local governments as a supplement to the strategic spatial plan, predominantly in prioritizing vulnerable area treatment prior to the completion of Northern Java Seawall in 2025. This study provides information and a simplified quantitative scoring result of vulnerability and capability level in slum area that has been customized according to Indonesia’s demographic characteristic. These results and framework might be relevant to SoVI and capability scoring in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of high intensity precipitation events in increasing the vulnerability to floods in Mediterranean Spain. Precipitation intensity in this area appears to have augmented in the last two decades in association with warming trends of the Mediterranean Sea. At the same time, intense urbanization processes, occupying and transforming flood prone land, have produced an important increase in exposure. The main objective is to assess whether higher intensity precipitation and changing patterns in exposure aggravate vulnerability to floods.

In this paper, vulnerability is understood as the result of the interrelationships between exposure, sensitivity, impacts and adaptive capacity. Consequently, methods used involved the compilation and analysis of published and unpublished precipitation data, population and land use data, data on insurance claims, and media sources related to those variables.

Changes toward episodes of more intense precipitation in the expanding urban areas of Mediterranean Spain increase exposure but not necessarily vulnerability, at least in terms of human deaths. However, adaptative capacity needs to be formulated. Actions that attempt to absorb and eventually reuse flood flows (as the flood park in Alicante) appear to be more effective than traditional hydraulic solutions (as in Majorca).

The paper provides a systematic and coherent approach to vulnerability analysis taking into account the changing dynamics of its components. Especially, it signals the limits of current adaptive approaches to flooding and advocates for changes toward a more circular and less linear approach to urban drainage.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the categorization of elderly patients as vulnerable is affected by health-care service interactions with caregivers, which may increase, reduce or even negate entirely elderly patients’ vulnerable status.

The paper reports the results of a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews conducted with a large and varied sample of health-care personnel in charge of elderly patients in two hospital geriatric departments in France.

Findings show that the limits of the service-dominant logic approach when the service (care) relationship concerns vulnerable individuals who are, completely or partially, unable to take part in the co-creation of the service and the roles played by caregivers as resource integrators (intermediaries, facilitatorapomediaries and transformativeapomediaries) and that this affects the categorization of elderly patients as vulnerable.

The results enrich knowledge about the service relationship with vulnerable people by showing that the categorization of elderly patients as vulnerable is not immutable but stems from the dynamics among actors that may variously “reify it” (contribute to its internalization), “reduce it” (enable access to aspects of normal life), or “neutralize it” (help free this cohort from their categorization as vulnerable).

The findings provide insights for care providers by stressing the need to raise awareness among hospital staff regarding their active role in affecting the categorization of elderly patients as vulnerable through their care practices. In the context of public health policies, the findings show that the regulatory injunction to empower patients to preserve their well-being tends to produce the opposite effect on the frailest patients, who are unable to participate in their care pathway.

The research shows that categorization as vulnerable, in the health-care services context, is affected by the care interactions between caregivers and elderly patients. The support provided to hospital staff in this context helps to maintain patients’ well-being and dignity.

This article looks at the relationship between human rights law and geography. Drawing from a meeting of the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), the article explores how the right to life was legally interpreted to apply to the loss of life associated with Hurricane Katrina. In particular, the article argues that the HRC’s legal interpretation of the right to life shifted as part of a discussion between the United States and nongovernmental organizations. The shift incorporated a more nuanced understanding of the spatial dimension of injustice by including preexisting inequalities and ongoing internal displacement in the analysis of human rights obligations related to the hurricane. The HRC meeting and the legal interpretations arising from that meeting therefore provide an example of Seyla Benhabib’s concept of “democratic iterations” as well as an example of how law can be “spatialized” through international legal processes.

The purpose of this paper is to present a novel modeling approach that combines a balanced systems engineering design model with a geospatial model to explore the complex interactions between natural hazards and engineered systems.

The approach taken in this work was to assemble a combined systems engineering design/geospatial model and interface it with a physics‐based hazard model to assess how to visualize the coupling of potential hazard effects from the physical domain into the functional/requirements domain.

It was demonstrated that it is possible to combine the two models and apply them to realistic hazard cases. A number of potential benefits are described and made possible by this approach including the generation of systems‐level damage assessments, the potential reduction of geo‐information data collection requirements, the incorporation of socio‐technical elements, the generation of functional templates, and the creation of a superior mitigation framework.

This approach offers a way to better understand natural hazard impacts on built systems, systemic effects of hazards, functional interdependencies between infrastructural elements, and a practical means to reduce geo‐information collection requirements.

The work is original in that it is the first time a balanced systems engineering design model has been made spatially aware and used to explore the impact of natural disasters on human systems. This work is valuable in that it directly addresses the shortcomings of spatial‐only approaches and could be used in data‐poor regions of the world.

Disruption due to a crisis or disaster is a constant threat for the tourism industry, unfortunately the frameworks designed to prepare leaders for these events are inadequate. Most frameworks are designed to assess and enhance resilience and recovery and minimally prepare leaders for the complexities that emerge before, during and after these events. The purpose of this paper is to offer a leadership development framework that integrates context, competence and a complexity mindset.

This general review examines the literature focused on crises and disasters in the tourism industry for the purpose of understanding the circumstances surrounding several kinds of disruptive events, the competencies needed to address them. It also explores the usefulness of three forms of leadership development inputs. The result is a framework that builds capacity while ensuring organizational alignment.

The preparation of tourism industry leaders who address implications of crises and disaster should involve an understanding of the crisis processes and factors that can be known, and the development of a mindset that allows the leader to address those factors which cannot be known beforehand.

This paper offers a framework for tourism leaders and developers that moves beyond static and linear approaches to crisis and disaster training. It encourages the acquisition of contextual knowledge and adaptive processes through leadership-focused education, exposure to leaders and experiences.

This chapter focusses on food systems' vulnerability. In a rapidly and unpredictably changing world, vulnerability of farming and food systems becomes a key issue. The conceptual bases for food vulnerability analysis and food vulnerability assessment are discussed in a systemic perspective with an eye to the transition approach (Geels, 2004) as a perspective capable to analyze how novelties can develop and influence the system capability to fulfil societal functions, and food and nutrition security in particular. A framework for assessing people's food vulnerability is presented together with a simple vulnerability model based on the three dimensions of exposure (the degree to which a system is likely to experience environmental or sociopolitical stress), sensitivity (the degree to which a system is modified or affected by perturbations) and adaptive capacity (the ability to evolve in order to accommodate environmental hazards or change) (Adger, 2006). Then, other sections are dedicated to discuss the general questions that should be answered by a vulnerability assessment exercise, and the specific challenges emerging when the assessment concerns a food system. These elements are then used in the Annex to this chapter as a base for the development of a detailed method based on seven distinct steps for conducting participatory assessments of the vulnerability of food systems.