Benefits and Challenges of Resilience and Vulnerability for Disaster Risk Management

Alexander Fekete; Gabriele Hufschmidt; Sylvia Kruse

doi:10.1007/s13753-014-0008-3

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Alexander Fekete, Gabriele Hufschmidt, Sylvia Kruse. Benefits and Challenges of Resilience and Vulnerability for Disaster Risk Management[J]. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2014, 5(1): 3-20. doi: 10.1007/s13753-014-0008-3

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Alexander Fekete, Gabriele Hufschmidt, Sylvia Kruse. Benefits and Challenges of Resilience and Vulnerability for Disaster Risk Management[J]. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2014, 5(1): 3-20. doi: 10.1007/s13753-014-0008-3

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Benefits and Challenges of Resilience and Vulnerability for Disaster Risk Management

doi: 10.1007/s13753-014-0008-3

1 Risk and Crisis Management Section, Cologne University of Applied Sciences, 50679 Cologne, Germany;
2 Department of Geography, Master Program Disaster Management and Risk Governance, University of Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany;
3 Economics and Social Science, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research WSL, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland

Available Online: 2021-04-26

Abstract

Abstract

This article addresses resilience and vulnerability as two prominent concepts within disaster risk science. The authors provide an overview of current uses and benefits of and challenges to resilience and vulnerability concepts for disaster risk management (DRM). The article summarizes the evolution of these concepts and of attempts to define them precisely, and addresses the potential benefits of conceptual vagueness. The usage and conception of resilience and vulnerability within a selection of strategies and legislations in DRM are compared. Complementing this analysis of disaster risk research and management practice, a survey identifies some of the benefits of and challenges to the concepts of resilience and vulnerability as seen by a peer-community. Synthesizing the three approaches, we conclude that a certain conceptual and methodological "haze" prevails, which hampers the transfer of information and findings within disaster risk science, from science to practice, and vice versa. But this vagueness offers opportunities for communication between disaster risk science, policy, and practice. Overall, evaluations of the resilience and vulnerability concepts are lacking, which demands the development of criteria to identify and assess the challenges to and benefits of resilience and vulnerability for DRM.
- Boundary object,
- Disaster risk,
- Policy–science–practice interaction,
- Risk assessment,
- Resilience,
- Vulnerability

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References(100)

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