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Sustainable Development and Disaster Risk Reduction pp 37–55Cite as

Risk and Vulnerability

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Part of the book series: Disaster Risk Reduction ((DRR))

Abstract

The authors argue that sustainable development cannot be achieved without consideration of risk and vulnerability. Losses due to natural disasters, including those related to extreme climatic events, have been on the rise but risk and vulnerability are not equally distributed. Climate risk affecting both natural and human systems affects geographical regions to differing extents. Coastal areas where half of the world’s population and many major urban areas are located will bear the brunt of storms and sea level rise. Similarly, risks of flooding, drought etc. are unevenly distributed. Vulnerability is dependent on social, economic and political factors. In many ways, poor people are more vulnerable to climatic hazards, often living in exposed areas and substandard housing, having inadequate means to prepare for a recover from shocks. They are also vulnerable to slow-onset disasters. Vulnerability has also a psychological dimension and trauma caused by natural disasters can lead to long-standing psychological damage and a changed perception of the external world.

Risk in the modern world is confronted and dealt with in three fundamental ways. Risk as feelings refers to our fast, instinctive, and intuitive reactions to danger. Risk as analysis brings logic, reason and scientific deliberation to bear on hazard management. When our ancient instincts and our modern scientific analyses clash, we become painfully aware of a third reality – risk as politics. (Paul Slovic in ‘The Feeling of Risk’, Page 21, 2010)

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Acknowledgements

The first author would like to acknowledge knowledge gained and experience received from a multi-country research project titled “Advancing Locally Based Green Practices to realize establishment of Sound Material Cycle Society in Asian Cities” supported by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN). This project was especially helpful in developing thorough understanding of small scale disaster, vulnerability of marginalized populations and disaster-environment interlinkages.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, Health, Science and the Environment, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia

    Akhilesh Surjan

  2. Inter-Graduate School Unit for Sustainable Development and Survivable Societies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Shimpei Kudo

  3. Independent Evaluation Office, Global Environment Facility, Washington, DC, USA

    Juha I. Uitto

Authors
  1. Akhilesh Surjan
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  2. Shimpei Kudo
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  3. Juha I. Uitto
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Akhilesh Surjan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Evaluaiton Office, Global Environment Facility, Washington DC, USA

    Juha I. Uitto

  2. Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan

    Rajib Shaw

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Surjan, A., Kudo, S., Uitto, J.I. (2016). Risk and Vulnerability. In: Uitto, J., Shaw, R. (eds) Sustainable Development and Disaster Risk Reduction. Disaster Risk Reduction. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55078-5_3

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