Lunenburg Part 2 - Section 5 - Social Vulnerability - August 30.pdf

Appendix A: Annotated Bibliography
Assessing Social Vulnerability To Climate Change: Concepts &
Methods
Tapsell, Sue, Simon McCarthy, Hazel Faulkner, and Meghan Alexander. Social
Vulnerability to Natural Hazards. CapHaz-Net: Social Capacity Building for Natural
Hazards - Toward More Resilient Societies. Middlesex University, 2010.
Under the auspices of CapHaz-Net, a research network devoted to investigating the social
dimensions of natural hazards, the authors of this report present a review of contemporary
literature on social vulnerability by both academics and practitioners, with a focus on extreme
hydrometeorological events. The report includes an examination of concepts and definitions; an
evaluation of various conceptual models and methods of assessing vulnerability; and discussion
about the roles and responsibilities of various actors, including the state, communities and
households. The authors note that there are numerous challenges in integrating climate change
adaptation, which is long term and generally approached in a top-down manner; and disaster
reduction, which considers immediate impacts, and is usually performed using a bottom-up
approach. The report also discusses a number of studies of vulnerability performed in various
European nations.
While this report is specific to Europe, the conceptual models examined may generally be
applied in any developed western nation.
Fussel, Hans-Martin. Review and Quantitative Analysis of Indices of Climate Change
Exposure, Adaptive Capacity, Sensitivity, and Impacts. Background Note to the World
Bank Development Report 2010. Washington: World Bank, 2009.
This publication by Hans-Martin Fussel is an exhaustive review of climate change and natural
hazard indices, performed for the World Bank. The focus of the report is an evaluation of indices
of vulnerability to be applied at the national level, in order to direct adaptation funding to the
most vulnerable nations. The indices discussed consider overall vulnerability, not only social
vulnerability.
While many of the features of these indices are not applicable to the study at hand, Fussel’s
discussion of conceptual and methodological choices is informative. Specifically, he offers an
assessment of aggregated and disaggregated vulnerability indices, and critiques various
methods for weighting indicators. He notes that such methodological choices have a great
impact on the results obtained by an index.
Adger, W. Neil, Nick Brooks, Graham Bentham, Maureen Agnew, and Siri Eriksen. New
Indicators of Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity. Norwich: Tyndall Centre for Climate
Change Research, 2004.
This study has three main components. First, it sets forth a conceptual framework for developing
indicators of vulnerability and adaptive capacity, based on a literature review, meetings with
practitioners in the field of vulnerability, adaptation and natural hazards; and discussions with
what the authors describe as ‘key individuals.’ Second, the authors develop diagnostic indicators
of risk, measured in terms of the outcome of climate related disasters, measured by mortality,
morbidity and displacement. Third, they create a set of predictive indicators of vulnerability,
using publicly available data relating to social, economic, political and environmental factors.
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