Differential Vulnerability and Disaster Risk Management: Priorities and Opportunities for Research

Natural hazards such as droughts, and floods can cause devastating environmental and socioeconomic impacts on those whose lives are touched by them, and climate change is already adding to the burden imposed by weather-related events.Nowhere are the impacts greater than on the poor, which are generally found most vulnerable to natural hazards. While poverty is not equal to vulnerability, it importantly shapes the ability to cope with disasters. Lack of savings to draw on and an inability to raise credit to rebuild livelihoods explains why coping capacities are limited in such events. Low-quality housing heightens poor people’s physical vulnerability and exposes them to the elements or forces them to use temporary shelters. Lack of formal education and vocational training explains inefficient farming practices in the face of systemic drought risk. There is growing awareness of the relevance and need to tackle these indirect, long-term effects, as well as the important role played by differential vulnerability and resilience. As robust evidence and model-based analyses are very limited, IIASA has begun to study these issues at different spatial scales with a key focus on South Asia (India, Pakistan and Nepal), one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world. We present research highlights and key priorities for future scientific study as well as disaster risk management and climate adaptation