Proceedings of the Resilient Cities 2014 congress / session F2 - filling data gaps to address flooding in coastal cities

Meeting: 5th Global Forum on Urban Resilience & Adaptation, Bonn, Germany, 29-31 May 2014Disaster risk management has begun to prioritize interaction between social systems and infrastructure. This approach acknowledges societal and environmental practices that can influence the resilience of communities. The importance of social capital and its link with vulnerability at the most local level is addressed in this paper. Social vulnerabilities are discussed in terms of risk variables related to floods, and socioeconomic change as a result of urbanization. Social capital is treated as a measure of reduction of precondition to risk. By considering societal structures (i.e. community cooperation or its lack) as factors of vulnerability, resilience and sustainability can be promoted