Geography 2152F/G Lecture Notes - Coastal Hazards, 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake And Tsunami, Climate Change Mitigation
11 Apr 2014
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In focusing on root causes, we focus on societal aspects, and not individual characteristics. Human vulnerability to disaster: vulnerability, like risk and hazard, is a possible future state that implies high risk combined with an inability to cope ( pg 38) For example to an earthquake engineer, vulnerability means the quality of the built structure in terms of its resistance to seismic stress. Traditional resilience is common in ldc"s where disaster is a normal part of life and group coping strategies are important. For example, nomadic herdsmen in semi-arid areas tend to accumulate cattle during years with good pasture as an insurance against drought: reliability reflects the frequency with which protective devices against hazard fail. This approach is more applicable to developed countries where technology ensures a high degree of reliability for most urban services. Piers blaikie"s definition was: blaikie et al argued that it is people- not systems- that deal with disaster.
