Mapping Vulnerability

Chapter 13

Assessment of Capabilityand Vulnerability

 

Ben Wisner

INTRODUCTION

The word ‘vulnerability’ is used in the English hazards and disaster management literature in a large number of ways. This is not necessarily a matter of ambiguity or semantic drift, but disciplinary focus. Essentially, these different uses have invisible, implied adjectives preceding them, hence:

• structural engineering vulnerability;
• lifeline infrastructural vulnerability;
• communications system vulnerability;
• macro-economic vulnerability;
• regional economic vulnerability;
• commercial vulnerability (including insurance exposure);
• social vulnerability.

What they all have in common is the core notion of ‘potential for disruption or harm’. Maps and other assessments ...