The Vulnerability Paradox
Although considerable research attention has examined components of
biophysical vulnerability and the vulnerability of the built environment
(Mileti, 1999), we currently know the least about the social aspects of
vulnerability. Socially created vulnerabilities are largely ignored, mainly due
to the difficulty in quantifying them, which also explains why social losses
are normally absent in after-disaster cost/loss estimation reports. Instead,
social vulnerability is most often described using the individual characteristics
of people (age, race, health, income, type of dwelling unit,
employment). Social vulnerability is partially the product of social
inequalities—those social factors that influence or shape the susceptibility
of various groups to harm and that also govern their ability to respond.
However, it also includes place inequalities—those characteristics of
communities and the built environment, such as the level of urbanization,
growth rates, and economic vitality, that contribute to the social
vulnerability of places. To date, there has been little research effort focused
on comparing the social vulnerability of one place to another. For example,
is there a robust and consistent set of indicators for assessing social
vulnerability that facilitates comparisons among diverse places, such as
eastern North Carolina and southern California? How well do these
indicators differentiate places based on the level of social vulnerability and
how well do these factors explain differences in economic losses from natural
hazards? This article examines these questions through a comparative
analysis of social vulnerability to natural hazards among U.S. counties.
This article utilizes the hazards-of-place model of vulnerability (Cutter,
1996; Cutter, Mitchell, and Scott, 2000; Heinz Center for Science,
Economics, and the Environment, 2002) to examine the components of
social vulnerability. In this conceptualization (Figure 1), risk (an objective
measure of the likelihood of a hazard event) interacts with mitigation
(measures to lessen risks or reduce their impact) to produce the hazard
potential. The hazard potential is either moderated or enhanced by a
geographic filter (site and situation of the place, proximity) as well as the
social fabric of the place. The social fabric includes community experience
with hazards, and community ability to respond to, cope with, recover from,
and adapt to hazards, which in turn are influenced by economic,
demographic, and housing characteristics. The social and biophysical
vulnerabilities interact to produce the overall place vulnerability. In this
article we examine only the social vulnerability portion of the conceptual
model.