Birkmann / Kienberger / Alexander Assessment of Vulnerability to Natural Hazards

A European Perspective
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-0-12-410548-5
Verlag: Elsevier Science & Techn.
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 240 Seiten

Assessment of Vulnerability to Natural Hazards covers the vulnerability of human and environmental systems to climate change and eight natural hazards: earthquakes, floods, landslides, avalanches, forest fires, drought, coastal erosion, and heat waves. This book is an important contribution to the field, clarifying terms and investigating the nature of vulnerability to hazards in general and in various specific European contexts. In addition, this book helps improve understanding of vulnerability and gives thorough methodologies for investigating situations in which people and their environments are vulnerable to hazards. With case studies taken from across Europe, the underlying theoretical frame is transferrable to other geographical contexts, making the content relevant worldwide. - Provides a framework of theory and methodology designed to help researchers and practitioners understand the phenomenon of vulnerability to natural hazards and disasters and to climate change - Contains case studies that illustrate how to apply the methodology in different ways to diverse hazards in varied settings (rural, urban, coastal, mountain, and more) - Describes how to validate the results of methodology application in different situations and how to respond to the needs of diverse groups of stakeholders represented by the public and private sectors, civil society, researchers, and academics

Autoren/Hrsg.

Birkmann, Jörn

Kienberger, Stefan

Alexander, David

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Front Cover;1
2;Assessment of Vulnerability to Natural Hazards: A European Perspective;4
3;Copyright;5
4;Contents;6
5;Contributors;8
6;Introduction;10
6.1;Vulnerability: a key determinant of risk and its importance for risk management and sustainability;10
7;Chapter 1 - Theoretical and Conceptual Framework for the Assessment of Vulnerability to Natural Hazards and Climate Change in Europe1: The MOVE Framework;16
7.1;1.1 INTRODUCTION;17
7.2;1.2 RISK, VULNERABILITY, AND ADAPTATION TO NATURAL HAZARDS;18
7.3;1.3 MULTIDIMENSIONAL AND HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE: THE MOVE FRAMEWORK;22
7.4;1.4 THE APPLICATION: CRITERIA AND INDICATORS;26
7.5;1.5 CHALLENGES AND OUTLOOK;28
7.6;REFERENCES;29
8;Chapter 2 - Holistic Evaluation of Seismic Risk in Barcelona;36
8.1;2.1 INTRODUCTION;36
8.2;2.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY;36
8.3;2.3 LOCAL SEISMIC HAZARD;37
8.4;2.4 METHODOLOGY OF SEISMIC RISK ASSESSMENT;40
8.5;2.5 HOLISTIC RISK EVALUATION;46
8.6;2.6 EVALUATION OF THE RISK MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE;53
8.7;2.7 CONCLUSIONS;63
8.8;REFERENCES;66
9;Chapter 3 - Spatial and Holistic Assessment of Social, Economic, and Environmental Vulnerability to Floods—Lessons from the Salzach River Basin, Austria;68
9.1;3.1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND;68
9.2;3.2 ASSESSING VULNERABILITY—FROM CONCEPTS TO MEASURABLE AND MEANINGFUL SPATIAL UNITS;71
9.3;3.3 INDICATORS FOR MULTIPLE VULNERABILITY DIMENSIONS;75
9.4;3.4 RESULTS;82
9.5;3.5 DISCUSSION;84
9.6;3.6 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS;85
9.7;ACKNOWLEDGMENTS;87
9.8;REFERENCES;87
10;Chapter 4 - Vulnerability to Earthquakes and Floods of the Healthcare System in Florence, Italy;90
10.1;4.1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND;90
10.2;4.2 MATERIAL AND METHODS;91
10.3;4.3 RESULTS;98
10.4;4.4 CONCLUSION;102
10.5;REFERENCES;103
11;Chapter 5 - Vulnerability Assessment to Heat Waves, Floods, and Earthquakes Using the MOVE Framework: Test Case Cologne, Germany;106
11.1;5.1 INTRODUCTION;107
11.2;5.2 NATURAL HAZARDS WITHIN THE STUDY AREA;107
11.3;5.3 VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT WITHIN COLOGNE: METHODS;112
11.4;5.4 RESULTS;121
11.5;5.5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION;134
11.6;REFERENCES;136
12;Chapter 6 - Vulnerability to Drought and Heatwave in London: Revealing Institutionally Configured Risk;140
12.1;6.1 CASE STUDY DESCRIPTION;140
12.2;6.2 HAZARDS;141
12.3;6.3 VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT METHODS;144
12.4;6.4 INDICATORS;150
12.5;6.5 RESULTS AND VALIDATION;154
12.6;6.6 DISCUSSION;159
12.7;6.7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS;162
12.8;REFERENCES;162
13;Chapter 7 - Comprehensive Vulnerability Assessment of Forest Fires and Coastal Erosion: Evidences from Case-Study Analysis in Portugal;164
13.1;7.1 VALIDATION OF THE VULNERABILITY FRAMEWORK: METHODOLOGICAL QUESTIONS;165
13.2;7.2 HAZARDS CHARACTERIZATION;167
13.3;7.3 VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT METHODS;171
13.4;7.4 INDICATORS DESCRIPTION;175
13.5;7.5 RESULTS;188
13.6;7.6 DISCUSSION;189
13.7;7.7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS;190
13.8;REFERENCES;191
14;Chapter 8 - Vulnerability to Heat Waves, Floods, and Landslides in Mountainous Terrain: Test Cases in South Tyrol;194
14.1;8.1 INTRODUCTION;195
14.2;8.2 LANDSLIDES;199
14.3;8.3 FLOODS;203
14.4;8.4 HEAT WAVES;207
14.5;8.5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS;214
14.6;REFERENCES;216
15;Chapter 9 - Conclusion: Assessing Vulnerability in Europe and the World;218
15.1;9.1 REDEFINING CONCEPTS AND MAKING CONNECTIONS;218
15.2;9.2 BRIDGING THE HUMAN–PHYSICAL GAP;222
15.3;9.3 THE COMPONENTS OF VULNERABILITY;224
15.4;9.4 VALEDICTION OF THE MOVE FRAMEWORK;226
15.5;REFERENCES;227
16;Index;230

Leseproben

Introduction Vulnerability: a key determinant of risk and its importance for risk management and sustainability
JörnBirkmannStefanKienbergerDavid E.Alexander Bush fires in February 2014 in Norway, extreme heat stress in 2013 in London, and major floods in June 2013 in Central Europe illustrate that communities and states in Europe have to prepare seriously for extreme events and natural hazards. While some phenomena are unexpected, such as the bush fires in Norway during winter, other hazards are more or less well known, such as floods along large river systems. However, similar hazards and extreme events often have quite different impacts and consequences. For example the major earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March 2011, with a magnitude of 9.0 Mw (moment magnitude scale) caused about 18,500 fatalities, while the earthquake disaster in Haiti in 2010, which had a magnitude of 7.0 Mw—hence about 100 times less powerful than the Tohoku earthquake—resulted in more than 220,000 deaths. Also in Europe, various population groups were exposed to heat stress in 2003, with the loss of between 22,000 and 70,000 deaths (Robine et al., 2008). Mortality and morbidity were particularly high among the elderly. These considerations lead to several important questions: • What factors determine risk? • Why did the earthquake in Haiti, with a significantly lower magnitude cause many more fatalities compared to the event in Japan? • Why did so many elderly people died during the European heat wave in 2003? • Which factors have significantly increased the risk of harm and loss of life or property due to extreme events and natural hazards? • Can we measure differences in vulnerability and capacity to respond before such extreme events strike societies? • Can these assessments help to identify relevant intervention measures designed to mitigate risk? This book aims to provide some answers to the questions listed above. It focuses on the development and application of vulnerability assessments to natural hazards in Europe. Vulnerability assessment today is a key endeavor within different scientific communities, such as disaster risk reduction, emergency management, and climate change adaptation. In this regard, there is an emerging consensus that extreme events and natural hazards do not necessarily cause extreme impacts and major harm, but rather that the vulnerability of a society, community, or system (infrastructure, social-ecological system, etc.) exposed to the hazard determines whether it translates into disaster. The concept of vulnerability has been used in the English language for 400 years, although its origins in Latin (vulnerare, to damage or wound) go back to time immemorial. Vulnerability implies an inherent or innate susceptibility to harm and is the antithesis of robustness, resilience, and ability to resist. In terms of human process, it is often seen as the opposite of ability to cope or to bring to bear sufficient capacity to overcome and neutralize harm when it threatens a person or entity. Many more precise definitions of vulnerability have been developed in the various contexts in which it has been used. As a result, in the study of extreme events and disasters it has acquired a variety of meanings and overtones whose proliferation and contrasts have led to a degree of confusion over definitions. For example, does it include fragility, susceptibility, and exposure, or are these separate concepts? Nevertheless, in disaster studies, vulnerability has gradually established itself as a central concept, and many would regard it as the key to understanding the impact of extreme events. To produce disaster, hazards act upon the vulnerable fabric of society, and the vulnerable environment in which society has its being. An extreme but popular view is to treat hazard as merely the trigger of disaster and to argue that society is so complex that the ramifications of its vulnerability, and associated feedback loops, largely determine the form and magnitude of disaster. Another way of looking at this is that disaster cannot be understood, and hence neither can disaster risk, without an intimate knowledge of vulnerability in the various facets and categories in which it is manifest in society and environment. Under conditions of global environmental change, it is expected that Europe will face increases in the intensity and frequency of extreme natural events. At the same time important changes in societal conditions and preparedness can be observed in countries and regions in Europe. For example, the demographic change in Germany will most likely lead to a larger number of elderly people, which will make many regions and their populations in Germany more vulnerable to heat stress, particularly as elderly people have only limited physical means to cope with heat stress. In addition, socioeconomic changes and modifications in employment situations or social security networks, such as in Greece, might also influence the vulnerability of people who are exposed to natural hazards such as forest fires. Finally, increasing urbanization of hazardous areas, high levels of dependency on critical infrastructure (electricity, gas, water, banking, etc.), and the increasing vulnerability of particular social groups point to the urgent need to improve, not only our knowledge about the physical phenomena and hazard characteristics, but also vulnerability and its underlying factors in Europe and among its citizens. Goals of the Project
This book is based on the outcome of a research project funded by the European Commission’s Framework Project FP7. The project was named MOVE (Methods for the Improvement of Vulnerability Assessment in Europe) and it was designed to: • Enhance the base of knowledge on frameworks and methods for the assessment of vulnerability to natural hazards in Europe. • Use indices and indicators to help improve societal and environmental resilience by placing emphasis on clear, capable measurement and by accounting for uncertainties. • Identify gaps in existing methodologies for accomplishing these tasks. • Produce a conceptual framework that is independent of scale and hazard type. • Analyze physical, technical, environmental, economic, social, cultural, and institutional vulnerability measured for specific hazards and at different geographical scales. • Study the vulnerability of people and specific infrastructures (e.g., hospitals) to floods, temperature extremes, droughts, landslides, earthquakes, wildfires, and storms impacts. While the development of a common framework was an important stimulus to discussion and the harmonization of different definitions of vulnerability, the empirical case studies showed that, next to a common metaframework, the characteristics of each case study are specific to its context. The information that they contributed to the study might require the modification of the overall framework. In this respect, the empirical research on the ground allowed to operationalize the different components and factors of vulnerability outlined in the framework for the specific case studies. The project involved substantial participation by stakeholders, who were comprehensively consulted. This provided a basis to explore how these new methods and the information gathered within the vulnerability assessments can be linked to existing evaluation and planning tools. For example, the framework and case studies on flood vulnerability have a strong relevance for policy makers who aim to create a comprehensive and integrated approach to decision making for risk identification and vulnerability reduction. The European Union (EU) Flood Directive on Assessment and Management of Flood Risks (2007/60/EC), and the subsequent EU Flood Directive Implementation Strategy, lack the ability to address vulnerability in a comprehensive and integrative manner. In this regard, the MOVE framework and the practical results of the vulnerability assessments of floods demonstrate that flood risk mapping and management will have to consider different dimensions and factors of vulnerability if the aim is to manage and reduce flood risk effectively in Europe. Furthermore, case studies in Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Portugal show that vulnerability assessment should not be limited to economic loss estimation, as it also requires the consideration of tangible and intangible factors that determine institutional and cultural vulnerability. Hence, the core part of the book is designed to provide essential insights into case studies on how the proposed MOVE framework can be operationalized. The context and the settings of the case studies are extremely diverse, and so are the methods applied, results achieved, and conclusions gained. Urban case studies (such as those conducted in Barcelona and London) demonstrate the complexity of urban environments, but they also highlight the need to achieve a detailed understanding of underlying causal and spatial patterns. Focusing on a range of hazard types (as did the Cologne and South Tyrol case studies) highlights the difficulties of creating a common framework in an environment of...