Assessing and mapping village-level social vulnerability of selected Haiyan-affected areas to climate-related hazards — YRD
  1. Schedule
  2. Vulnerability & Community Level Adaptation (Oral Presentation)
  3. Assessing and mapping village-level social vulnerability of selected Haiyan-affected areas to climate-related hazards

Assessing and mapping village-level social vulnerability of selected Haiyan-affected areas to climate-related hazards (2612)

Luigi L Toda 1 2 , Justine Ravi C Orduna 2 3 , Rodel D Lasco 2 4 , Carlos Tito Santos 2 5
  1. Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
  2. Oscar M. Lopez Center for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management Foundation, Inc., Pasig City, Philippines
  3. National College of Public Administration, University of the Philippines - Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
  4. World Agroforestry Centre, Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines
  5. Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

The destruction left by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines highlighted not only the exposure of the country but also the underlying vulnerability of villages to climate-related hazards. This study used geographic information system (GIS) tools to characterize social vulnerability to climate-related hazards of villages of Haiyan-hit Tacloban City and Ormoc City using a modified social vulnerability index (SoVI). The SoVI used socioeconomic data mainly drawn from census and was computed from 11 indicators influencing sensitivity, adaptive capacity, and exposure. Social vulnerability varies spatially across the study areas, where Barangay 88, said to be the worst-hit village in Tacloban, and Barangay Naungan in Ormoc, recorded the highest vulnerability scores. Demographic and socioeconomic shifts are likely in both cities, given the population growth and increasing density of settlements already concentrated in hazard-prone barangays. Measures to reduce vulnerability should be a local priority and would require political will for community-based climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction and management. This study provides an approach for assessing social vulnerability using available census and climate-related hazard data to determine areas for intervention at the village level.