Abstract
In the recent past, Australia has experienced several catastrophic hazard events and the frequency and intensity of such events is expected to increase in the future. Natural hazards can rarely be fully prevented, yet their losses can be minimized if the necessary preparedness and mitigation actions are taken before an event occurs. Identification of vulnerable groups is an important first step in any preparedness and emergency management planning process. Social vulnerability refers to population characteristics that influence the capacity of a community to prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. Factors that contribute to social vulnerability are often hidden and difficult to capture. This study analyzes the relative levels of social vulnerability of communities at the urban–bush interface in the Blue Mountains and Ku-ring-gai local council areas in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. We tested whether a standardized social vulnerability index could be developed using a pre-existing set of indicators. We created an exploratory principle component analysis model using Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006 census data at the Census Collection District (CCD) level. We identified variables contributing to social vulnerability and used the component scores to develop a social vulnerability index. Finally, the social vulnerability index was mapped at the CCD level. Our results indicate that both contributors to and the level of social vulnerability differ between and within communities. In other words, they are spatially variable. They show different spatial patterns across the areas, which provides useful information for identifying communities that are most likely to experience negative disaster impacts due to their socio-demographic characteristics.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adger WN, Brooks N, Bentham G, Agnew M, Eriksen S (2004) New indicators of vulnerability and adaptive capacity. Technical Report 7. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Norwich
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2009) Regional population growth, Australia, 2007–08 Australian Bureau of Statistics. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/3218.0~2007-08~Main+Features~New+South+Wales?OpenDocument#PARALINK3. Accessed 26 July 2011
Baum S, Horton S, Choy D (2008) Local urban communities and extreme weather events: mapping social vulnerability to flood. Australas J Reg Stud 14(3):251–273
Birkmann J (2006) Measuring vulnerability to promote disaster-resilient societies: conceptual frameworks and definitions. In: Birkmann J (ed) Measuring vulnerability to natural hazards: towards disaster resilient societies. United Nations University Press, Tokyo, pp 9–54
Blaikie P, Wisner B, Cannon T, Davis I (1994) At risk: natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters. Routledge, London
Blue Mountains Bush Fire Coordinating Committee (2008) Bushfire risk management plan. Blue Mountains City Council, Katoomba
Blue Mountains City Council (2006) Community Atlas: index of relative socio-economic disadvantage, the Blue Mountains City 2006. http://atlas.id.com.au/DefaultMap.aspx?id=212&pg=2010&c=3080&t=10013. Accessed 14 May 2012
Bowen RE, Riley C (2003) Socio-economic indicators and integrated coastal management. Ocean Coast Manag 46(3–4):299–312
Brunckhorst D, Reeve I, Morley P, Coleman M, Barclay E, McNeill J, Stayner R, Glencross-Grant R, Thompson J, Thompson L (2011) Hunter & Central Coasts New South Wales—vulnerability to climate change impacts. Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Australia
Buckle P (1998) Re-defining community and vulnerability in the context of emergency management. Aust J Emerg Manag 13(4):21–26
Burton D, Laurie E (2009) Blue Mountains City Council climate change risk assessment. Climate Risk Pty Limited (Australia), Sydney
Buxton M, Haynes R, Mercer D, Butt A (2011) Vulnerability to bushfire risk at Melbourne’s urban fringe: the failure of regulatory land use planning. Geogr Res 49(1):1–12
Chakraborty J, Tobin GA, Montz BE (2005) Population evacuation: assessing spatial variability in geophysical risk and social vulnerability to natural hazards. Nat Hazards Rev 6(1):23–33
Chen K (2005) Counting bushfire-prone addresses in the Greater Sydney region. In: Proceedings of the Symposium on Planning for Natural Hazards—How Can We Mitigate the Impacts? University of Wollongong, Wollongong, 2–5 February 2005, pp 10
Chen K, Blong R, Jacobson C (2003) Towards an integrated approach to natural hazards risk assessment using GIS: with reference to bushfires. Environ Manage 31(4):546–560
City of Blue Mountains (2009) State of city report—summary findings Blue Mountains City Council. www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au. Accessed 20 July 2011
Clark G, Moser S, Ratick S, Dow K, Meyer W, Emani S, Jin W, Kasperson J, Kasperson R, Schwarz H (1998) Assessing the vulnerability of coastal communities to extreme storms: the case of Revere, MA, USA. Mitig Adapt Strat Glob Change 3(1):59–82
Collins TW (2005) Households, forests, and fire hazard vulnerability in the American West: a case study of a California community. Glob Environ Change Part B Environ Hazards 6(1):23–37
Cottrell A (2005) Communities and bushfire hazard in Australia: more questions than answers. Glob Environ Change Part B Environ Hazards 6(2):109–114
Cox JR, Rosenzweig C, Solecki WD, Goldberg R, Kinney PL (2007) Social vulnerability to climate change: a neighbourhood analysis of the northeast U.S. megaregion. Union of Concerned Scientists. http://www.northeastclimateimpacts.org/pdf/tech/cox_et_al.pdf. Accessed 20 July 2011
Cutter SL (1996) Vulnerability to environmental hazards. Prog Hum Geogr 20(4):529–539
Cutter SL, Finch C (2008) Temporal and spatial changes in social vulnerability to natural hazards. Proc Nat Acad Sci 105(7):2301–2306
Cutter SL, Mitchell JT, Scott MS (1997) Handbook for conducting a GIS-based hazards assessment at the county level. University of South Carolina, Columbia
Cutter SL, Mitchell JT, Scott MS (2000) Revealing the vulnerability of people and places: a case study of Georgetown County, South Carolina. Ann As Am Geogr 90(4):713–737
Cutter SL, Boruff BJ, Shirley WL (2003) Social vulnerability to environmental hazards. Soc Sci Quart 84(2):242–261
Cutter SL, Barnes L, Berry M, Burton C, Evans E, Tate E, Webb J (2008) A place-based model for understanding community resilience to natural disasters. Glob Environ Change 18(4):598–606
Cutter SL, Emrich CT, Webb JJ, Morath D (2009) Social vulnerability to climate variability hazards: a review of the literature: Final report to Oxfam America. Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute, University of South Carolina, Columbia
Davidson R (1997) An urban earthquake disaster risk index. John A Blume Earthquake Engineering Center Report, vol 121. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Deodhar V (2004) Does the housing market value heritage?: Some empirical evidence. Department of Economics, Macquarie University, North Ryde
Dixon D (2005) Needs of an actual community post disaster-Hornsby Ku-ring-gai. Aust J Emerg Manage 20(3):33–38
Dolan A, Walker I (2006) Understanding vulnerability of coastal communities to climate change related risks. J Coast Res SI 39:1316–1323
Douglas J (2007) Physical vulnerability modelling in natural hazard risk assessment. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 7:283–288
Dwyer A, Zoppou C, Nielsen O, Day S, Roberts S (2004) Quantifying Social Vulnerability: A methodology for identifying those at risk to natural hazards. Geoscience Australia Record, vol 2004/014. Geoscience Australia, Canberra
Eakin H, Luers AL (2006) Assessing the vulnerability of social-environmental systems. Annu Rev Environ Resour 31:365–394
Fekete A (2009) Validation of a social vulnerability index in context to river-floods in Germany. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 9(2):393–403
Fekete A, Damm M, Birkmann J (2010) Scales as a challenge for vulnerability assessment. Nat Hazards 55(3):729–747
Field AP (2009) Discovering statistics using SPSS, 3rd edn. Sage, London
Finch C, Emrich CT, Cutter SL (2010) Disaster disparities and differential recovery in New Orleans. Popul Environ 31(4):179–202
Flanagan BE, Gregory EW, Hallisey EJ, Heitgerd JL, Lewis B (2011) A social vulnerability index for disaster management. J Homel Secur Emerg Manag 8(1):Article 3.
Füssel HM (2007) Vulnerability: a generally applicable conceptual framework for climate change research. Glob Environ Change 17(2):155–167
Goudie D (2008) Improving delivery of safety-oriented weather information for non-english speaking households (NESH). Developing community weather-safe structures and behaviour. Research series report 2. Centre for Disaster Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, p 138
Granger K (2003) Quantifying storm tide risk in Cairns. Nat Hazards 30(2):165–185
Granger K, Hayne M (2001) Natural hazards and risk they pose to South East Queensland. Australian Geological Survey Organisation
Haki Z, Akyürek Z, Düzgün Ş (2004) Assessment of social vulnerability using geographic information systems: Pendik, Istanbul case study. Paper presented at the 7th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science, Parallel Session 4.3-Environmental/Social Modelling, Heraklion, Greece
Handmer J, O’Neil S, Killalea D (2010) Review of fatalities in the February 7, 2009, bushfires: Report Prepared for the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission April 2010. Bushfire CRC, Centre for Risk and Community Safety, RMIT University, Melbourne
Hennessy K, Lucas C, Nicholls N, Bathols J, Suppiah R, Ricketts J (2005) Climate change impacts on fire-weather in south-east Australia. Climate Impacts Group, CSIRO Atmospheric Research and the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, Aspendale. Melbourne
Hewitt K (1997) Regions of risk: a geographical introduction to disasters. Longman, London
Holand IS, Rød J, Lujala P (2009) A social vulnerability index for Norway: a viable approach in analyses of social consequences of climate change?. In: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science: Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions, Copenhagen, 10–12 March 2009. IOP Publishing Ltd. doi:10.1088/1755-1307/6/57/572028
Holand IS, Lujala P, Rød JK (2011) Social vulnerability assessment for Norway: a quantitative approach. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift-Norweg J Geogr 65(1):1–17
Hornsby/Ku-ring-gai Bushfire Management Committee (2008) Bushfire risk management plan. http://www.hkbfmc.org.au/files/BFRMP_Final_Lowres_04032010.pdf. Accessed 20 July 2011
Kienberger S, Lang S, Zeil P (2009) Spatial vulnerability units-Expert-based spatial modelling of socio-economic vulnerability in the Salzach catchment, Austria. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 9:767–778
King D (2001) Uses and limitations of socioeconomic indicators of community vulnerability to natural hazards: data and disasters in Northern Australia. Nat Hazards 24(2):147–156
King D, MacGregor C (2000) Using social indicators to measure community vulnerability to natural hazards. Aust J Emerg Manage 15(3):52–57
Kuhlicke C, Scolobig A, Tapsell S, Steinführer A, De Marchi B (2011) Contextualizing social vulnerability: findings from case studies across Europe. Nat Hazards 58(2):789–810
Ku-ring-gai Council (2005) Ku-ring-gai community environmental research report. Ku-ring-gai Council
Ku-ring-gai Council (2006) Biodiversity strategy. Ku-ring-gai Council, Gordon
Lein J, Stump N (2009) Assessing wildfire potential within the wildland-urban interface: a southeastern Ohio example. Appl Geogr 29(1):21–34
Lowe T, Haynes K, Byrne G (2009) Resilience at the urban interface: the community fire unit approach. In: Handmer J, Haynes K (eds) Community bushfire safety. CSIRO, Canberra, pp 21–34
Meehl GA, Stocker TF, Collins WD, Friedlingstein P, Gaye AT, Gregory JM, Kitoh A, Knutti R, Murphy JM, Noda A, Raper SCB, Watterson IG, Weaver AJ, Zhao ZC (2007) Global climate projections. Climate Change 2007: The physical science basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Mendes J (2009) Social vulnerability indexes as planning tools: beyond the preparedness paradigm. J Risk Res 12(1):43–58
Myers C, Slack T, Singelmann J (2008) Social vulnerability and migration in the wake of disaster: the case of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Popul Environ 29(6):271–291
Nardo M, Saisana M, Saltelli A, Tarantola S, Hoffman A, Giovannini E (2005) Handbook on constructing composite indicators: methodology and user guide. OECD, Paris
O’Keefe P, Westgate K, Wisner B (1976) Taking the naturalness out of natural disasters. Nature 260:566–567
Pink B (2006) Socio-economic indexes for areas (SEIFA):technical paper. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra
Poudyal NC, Johnson-Gaither C, Goodrick S, Bowker J, Gan J (2012) Locating spatial variation in the association between wildland fire risk and social vulnerability across six southern states. Environ Manage 9(3):623–635
Preston B, Brooke C, Measham T, Smith T, Gorddard R (2009) Igniting change in local government: lessons learned from a bushfire vulnerability assessment. Mitig Adapt Strat Glob Change 14(3):251–283
Preston BL, Yuen EJ, Westaway RM (2011) Putting vulnerability to climate change on the map: a review of approaches, benefits, and risks. Sustain Sci 6(2):177–202
Rygel L, O’Sullivan D, Yarnal B (2006) A method for constructing a social vulnerability index: an application to hurricane storm surges in a developed country. Mitig Adapt Strat Glob Change 11(3):741–764
Saisana M, Saltelli A, Tarantola S (2005) Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis techniques as tools for the quality assessment of composite indicators. J R Stat Soc Ser A (Stat Soc) 168(2):307–323
Saltelli A (2007) Composite indicators between analysis and advocacy. Soc Indic Res 81(1):65–77
Schmidtlein MC, Deutsch RC, Piegorsch WW, Cutter SL (2008) A sensitivity analysis of the social vulnerability index. Risk Anal 28(4):1099–1114
Simpson D, Katirai M (2006) Indicator issues and proposed framework for a disaster preparedness index (DPi). University of Louisville, 49 pp
Steffen WL (2009) Climate change 2009: faster change & more serious risks. Department of Climate Change. http://www.anu.edu.au/climatechange/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/climate-change-faster-change-and-more-serious-risks-final.pdf. Accessed 01 Oct 2011
Tapsell S, McCarthy S, Faulkner H, Alexander M (2010) Social vulnerability to natural hazards. Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC), Middlesex University. http://caphaz-net.org/outcomes-results/CapHaz-Net_WP4_Social-Vulnerability2.pdf Accessed 01 Oct 2011
Turner BL, Kasperson RE, Matson PA, McCarthy JJ, Corell RW, Christensen L, Eckley N, Kasperson JX, Luers A, Martello ML, Polsky C, Pulsipher A, Schiller A (2003) A framework for vulnerability analysis in sustainability science. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 100(14):8074–8079. doi:10.1073/pnas.1231335100
UNISDR (2004) Living with risk. A global review of disaster reduction initiatives
Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission (2009) The Interim Report of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Commission. State Government of Victoria, Melbourne
Vincent K (2004) Creating an index of social vulnerability to climate change for Africa. Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research Working Paper 56
Vyas S, Kumaranayake L (2006) Constructing socio-economic status indices: how to use principal components analysis. Health Policy Plan 21(6):459–468
Wei YM, Fan Y, Lu C, Tsai HT (2004) The assessment of vulnerability to natural disasters in China by using the DEA method. Environ Impact Assess Rev 24(4):427–439
Wisner B, Blakie P, Cannon T, Davis I (2004) At Risk: natural hazards, peoples vulnerability and disasters, 2nd edn. Routledge, London
Wood N, Burton C, Cutter S (2010) Community variations in social vulnerability to Cascadia-related tsunamis in the US Pacific Northwest. Nat Hazards 52(2):369–389
Wu S, Yarnal B, Fisher A (2002) Vulnerability of coastal communities to sealevel rise: a case study of Cape May County, New Jersey, USA. Clim Res 22(3):255–270
Yeletaysi S, Ozceylan D, Fiedrich F, Harrald J, Jefferson T (2009) A framework to integrate social vulnerability into catastrophic natural disaster preparedness planning. In: TIEMS Annual Conference, Istanbul, pp 380–389
Zahran S, Brody SD, Peacock WG, Vedlitz A, Grover H (2008) Social vulnerability and the natural and built environment: a model of flood casualties in Texas. Disasters 32(4):537–560
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Solangaarachchi, D., Griffin, A.L. & Doherty, M.D. Social vulnerability in the context of bushfire risk at the urban-bush interface in Sydney: a case study of the Blue Mountains and Ku-ring-gai local council areas. Nat Hazards 64, 1873–1898 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-012-0334-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-012-0334-y