Articles | Volume 16, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/we-16-59-2016
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/we-16-59-2016
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17 Feb 2016
Standard article |  | 17 Feb 2016

Vulnerability, resilience, hazard, risk, damage, and loss: a socio-ecological framework for natural disaster analysis

Marco Modica and Roberto Zoboli

Abstract. Evaluating socio-economic losses due to natural disasters is a challenging task because of the combined complexity of the social and ecological systems affected. However, also under pressure from the expected effects of climate change, evaluating the socio-economic costs of natural catastrophes has become a vital need for policy makers, urban planners, and private agents (such as insurance companies and banks). This paper suggests a general framework encompassing all the important concepts which should be taken into account by the above agents in the assessment of natural disasters. In particular, we propose a simple and consistent set of relationships among vulnerability, resilience, hazard, risk, damage, and loss which can guide socio-economic assessment.

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Short summary
Evaluating socio-economic losses due to natural disasters is challenging because of the complexity of the social and ecological systems affected (also under pressure from the expected effects of climate change). This paper suggests a general framework encompassing all the important concepts needed in the assessment of natural disasters. In particular, we propose a set of relationships among vulnerability, resilience, hazard, risk, damage, and loss which can guide socio-economic assessment.
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