Mission-Aransas Watershed Social Vulnerability Analysis : Using Principal Component Analysis as an Indexing Tool for Social Vulnerability

Climate change will impact the human communities of the Mission‐Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, resulting in adverse impacts to local economies, development, and infrastructure. In order to improve the resiliency of communities in the Mission‐Aransas Estuary watershed, adaptation strategies that address the major climate change threats must be developed. Vulnerability assessments are a key tool for developing these strategies, and they provide the necessary information for creating adaptation plans that improve resiliency. Social vulnerability to climate change is the degree to which a community is susceptible to, and unable to cope with, the adverse effects of climate change. It is a function of (1) the sensitivity of the community to climate change impacts, (2) its exposure to those changes, and (3) its adaptive capacity or resilience to the consequences. Specifically for this project, Texas Sea Grant and the Mission‐Aransas Reserve collaborated on the development of a social sensitivity index for the Census block groups located in the Mission‐Aransas Estuary watershed. The goal of the index is to provide communities with valuable information on their sensitivity and increase their ability to plan for and respond to upcoming environmental changes and potentially disastrous episodic events associated with climate change.NOAA Climate Program Office, Coastal and Ocean Climate Applications Program (NA12OAR4310104).Marine Scienc

Social Vulnerability and Touristification of Historic Centers

Historic centers have su ered di erent processes of neglect, occupation, segregation, gentrification, and touristification as a result of changes in demand and policies. Currently, they are going through a homogenization process motivated by tourist pressure, which is causing the expulsion of the local population; this is a common topic of interest for media and political agendas, which requires scientific analysis. This research aims at identifying the winning and the losing tourist groups in the historic center of Seville. It is structured in two parts: a conceptual one based on the bibliographic review with which one wants to know how the current society responds to tourist pressure through defining and characterizing the processes of substitution of uses and inhabitants, and another empirical one in which the analysis of statistical indicators (demographic, economic, and residential) treated with Geographic Information System (GIS) allows us to measure the degree of existing vulnerability and analyze social and spatial e ects caused by the tourism in Sevill

Disaster and disadvantage: social vulnerability in emergency management

This report describes who is most at risk of being socially vulnerable in an emergency or disaster and what needs to be done to better protect them and improve their recovery Executive summary: While they can be devastating for all affected individuals and communities and cause great physical, financial and psychological hardship, for people who are already facing disadvantage, the impacts can be overwhelming, leading – in the words of one mother – to a “cascade of sorrows”. People facing disadvantage, such as those in poverty, migrants, refugees, children, older people, people with disabilities, people who are homeless or transient, and people living in poor quality housing, are more vulnerable at all stages of a disaster – before, during, and after it strikes. These people are considered ‘socially vulnerable’ in the face of a disaster. Whether it is their capacity to evacuate in time or to recover in the long term from trauma and financial devastation, socially vulnerable people are hit hardest and longest by disasters and emergencies. These people often have fewer resources and less social support, mobility and housing options at their disposal, and so are less able to prepare for, respond to and recover from a disaster or emergency. As one report put it, socially vulnerable are “more likely to die...and less likely to recover.

Conflict and social vulnerability to climate change: Lessons from Gaza

In societies marred by conflict, the propensity of populations to be harmed by climate hazards is likely to be increased by their exposure to violence and other coercive practices. Stakeholder assessments of climate vulnerability, as reported here for the Gaza Strip, can capture the qualitative experience of harm caused by conflict-related practices as these relate to, and interact with, forecasted climatic risks. The key pathways of climate vulnerability identified by stakeholders in Gaza relate above all to expected impacts on food security and water security. Exploration of these vulnerability pathways reveals conflict-structured non-climatic risks overwhelming forecasted climate risks. The prevalence in Gaza of short-term 'enforced coping' prevents the development of long-term adaptive capacity. Climate vulnerability assessments in (post)conflict environments should acknowledge the methodological and political-policy challenges caused by chronic, non-climatic sources of harm. © 2011 Taylor & Francis

Social Vulnerability, Frailty and Mortality in Elderly People

BACKGROUND:Social vulnerability is related to the health of elderly people, but its measurement and relationship to frailty are controversial. The aims of the present study were to operationalize social vulnerability according to a deficit accumulation approach, to compare social vulnerability and frailty, and to study social vulnerability in relation to mortality. METHODS AND FINDINGS:This is a secondary analysis of community-dwelling elderly people in two cohort studies, the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA, 1996/7-2001/2; N = 3707) and the National Population Health Survey (NPHS, 1994-2002; N = 2648). Social vulnerability index measures that used self-reported items (23 in NPHS, 40 in CSHA) were constructed. Each measure ranges from 0 (no vulnerability) to 1 (maximum vulnerability). The primary outcome measure was mortality over five (CHSA) or eight (NPHS) years. Associations with age, sex, and frailty (as measured by an analogously constructed frailty index) were also studied. All individuals had some degree of social vulnerability. Women had higher social vulnerability than men, and vulnerability increased with age. Frailty and social vulnerability were moderately correlated. Adjusting for age, sex, and frailty, each additional social 'deficit' was associated with an increased odds of mortality (5 years in CSHA, odds ratio = 1.05, 95% confidence interval: 1.02-1.07; 8 years in the NPHS, odds ratio = 1.08, 95% confidence interval: 1.03-1.14). We identified a meaningful survival gradient across quartiles of social vulnerability, and although women had better survival than men, survival for women with high social vulnerability was equivalent to that of men with low vulnerability. CONCLUSIONS:Social vulnerability is reproducibly related to individual frailty/fitness, but distinct from it. Greater social vulnerability is associated with mortality in older adults. Further study on the measurement and operationalization of social vulnerability, and of its relationships to other important health outcomes, is warranted

Assessment of Social Vulnerability to Floods in the Floodplain of Northern Italy

Practices for reducing the impacts of floods are becoming more and more advanced, centered on communities and reaching out to vulnerable populations. Vulnerable individuals are characterized by social and economic attributes and by societal dynamics rooted in each community. These indicators can magnify the negative impacts of disasters together with the capacity of each individual to cope with these events. The Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) provides an empirical basis to compare social differences in various spatial scenarios and for specific environmental hazards. This research shows the application of the SoVI to the floodplain of northern Italy, based on the use of 15 census variables. The chosen study area is of particular interest for the high occurrence of flood events coupled with a high level of human activity, landscape transformations, and an elevated concentration of assets and people. The analysis identified a positive spatial autocorrelation across the floodplain that translates into the spatial detection of vulnerable groups, those that are likely to suffer the most from floods. In a second stage, the output of the index was superimposed on the flood hazard map of the study area to analyze the resulting risk. The Piemonte and Veneto regions contain the main areas prone to flood \u201csocial\u201d risk, highlighting the need for a cohesive management approach at all levels to recognize local capacities and increase communication, awareness, and preparedness to mitigate the undesirable effects of such events

Social vulnerability and disaster risk reduction needs: perspectives of women

Integration of disaster risk reduction needs and experiences of different groups in the community with the built environment is significant to achieve disaster resilience. It facilitates identifying the nature of disaster vulnerabilities within a particular community leading to achieve disaster risk reduction more effectively. Women‘s needs and experiences are prominent in this context since women have been identified as a highly vulnerable group to disasters. Women‘s higher disaster vulnerability is typically determined by their social roles and responsibilities. Their responsibilities over production and reproduction frequently expose them to different conditions in disasters with varying vulnerabilities. This paper is based on a doctoral research that aims to investigate how women‘s knowledge, experiences and needs and concerns in relation to disaster risk reduction can be identified and integrated with disaster risk reduction in the built environment. A comprehensive literature review has been carried out in order to explore various aspects of social vulnerability, disaster implications on women, women‘s needs in disaster risk reduction and the means of needs capturing and integration. Participatory methods such as public consultations are suggested as the most effective ways of capturing disaster risk reduction needs of community women in literature whilst the significant role of construction process and people involved in it is highlighted for integrating the needs with the built environment