A global review of disaster reduction initiatives - Welcome to the ...

2Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiativesards. While droughts affect primarily the lowersocial classes, the impact of earthquakes and floodsare more evenly spread out between society.Understanding the nature ofvulnerability and capacityRisk is rooted in conditions of physical, social, economic andenvironmental vulnerability that need to be assessed and managedon a continuing basis. The primary objective is to minimizeexposure to hazards through the development and relianceon individual and societal capabilities and institutional capacitiesthat can withstand potential loss or damageOver the past thirty years there has been a significantand important development in the understandingabout what makes people, social, economicand environmental assets susceptible tohazards. The concept of vulnerability may havebeen referred to first by engineers, in consideringconstruction values and building designs relatedto levels of resistance to physical forces exerted byearthquakes, wind and water.During the 1980s and 1990s, there was a growinginterest in the linkages between disasters andVulnerabilityA set of conditions and processes resulting from physical, social,economical and environmental factors, which increase the susceptibilityof a community to the impact of hazards.Coping capacityThe manner in which people and organisations use existingresources to achieve various beneficial ends during unusual,abnormal, and adverse conditions of a disaster event or process.development. Originally focussed on consideringprimarily the impact of disaster on development, itwas then expanded also to address the impact ofdevelopment on the toll of disaster related damage.This expressed a new range of socio-economic andenvironmental concerns built around the notion ofvulnerability.In parallel with this expanded interest on the relationshipbetween disasters and development duringthe last decades, the role of community participationas well as people’s general coping capacities was alsorecognized as key elements in explaining disasterrisk. The creative link between the negative conditionswith which people live, and the often overlookedpositive attributes which they also possess,underline the importance of socio-economic dimensionsof risk. However, it remains a challenge toencourage the identification of locally availablestrengths and capacities to reduce risk to hazards.The importance of exposing capacities hidden innon-disaster times becomes a critical task for disasterrisk reduction. Capacity apply to all levels ofsociety and social organizations, and a broad rangeof physical, social, economic and ecological considerations.Vulnerability is a reflection of the state of the individualand collective physical, social, economic andenvironmental conditions at hand that are shapedcontinually by attitudinal, behavioural, cultural,socio-economic and political influences at the individuals,families, communities, and countries.Governed by human activity, vulnerability cannot beisolated from ongoing development efforts, and ittherefore plays a critical role in the social, economicand ecological spheres of sustainable development.EconomicInteraction ofvulnerabilityfactorsPhysicalSocialEcological46