Stakeholder perception based approach to vulnerability assessment - case of Ratnapura municipal council area

The intention of this paper is toprooide an alternative approach to thevulnerability assessment. Most of the present approaches that are involved in the vulnerability assessment process have been identified with various weaknesses. Most of the weaknesses are related to the elements that are considered in the approaches. Identifying the most suitable elements, when peiforming the vulnerability assessment, is crucial to the creation of disaster resilient cities. Stakeholder perceptions are vital to identify the site specific and disaster specific elements. This research develops an approach that is stakeholder perception based and mostlY relevant to the site specificities. Through the literature revielJ!, thirty three elements were identified lvith riference to flood and landslide. Factor anaiysis method was applied to identify the most influential elements among them through the stakeholder perception. The Vulnerability Assessment n/asperformed by applYing the identified elements, taking Rathnapura as the case study area