Quantifying Vulnerability: A methodology for identifying those at risk to natural hazards  

Authors / CoAuthors

Dwyer, A. | Zoppou, C. | Nielsen, O. | Day, S. | Roberts, S.

Abstract

In this study, a methodology is developed to assess the vulnerability of individuals within households to risk from natural hazards. The methodology introduces a technique for measuring certain attributes of individuals living within a household that contribute to their vulnerability to a natural hazard impact. The methodology has four main steps; 1) indicator selection 2) a risk perception questionnaire 3) decision tree analysis 4) synthetic estimation. Step four involves an application to an area in Perth, Western Australia. The study found that, through the application of this new methodology, eleven unique combinations of specific attributes contribute to the vulnerability of an individual within a household. The attributes, referred to as vulnerability indicators, of most importance relate to various levels of; injury sustained, residence damage, house insurance, income and type of house ownership. This finding suggests that individual and household finances, when combined with other specific indicators, play a significant role in determining an individual's vulnerability to a natural hazard impact. The combinations of indicators can be mapped in order to provide a useful tool for representing aspects of social vulnerability to natural hazard impacts.

Product Type

nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

61120

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Keywords

• External PublicationScientific Journal Paper

( Theme )

• risk assessment

( Theme )

• geohazards

( Theme )

• culture

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Earth Sciences

• Published_Internal

Publication Date

2004-01-01T00:00:00

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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

Classification - unclassified

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

Access - restricted

Use - license

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Purpose

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unknown

Topic Category

geoscientificInformation

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Unknown

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Spatial Resolution

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