Generally speaking, vulnerability to environmental hazards means the
potential for loss. Since losses vary geographically, over time, and among
different social groups, vulnerability also varies over time and space. Within
the hazards literature, vulnerability has many different connotations,
depending on the research orientation and perspective (Dow, 1992; Cutter,
1996, 2001a). There are three main tenets in vulnerability research: the
identification of conditions that make people or places vulnerable to extreme
natural events, an exposure model (Burton, Kates, and White, 1993;
Anderson, 2000); the assumption that vulnerability is a social condition, a
measure of societal resistance or resilience to hazards (Blaikie et al., 1994;