Abstract
This study illustrates the social vulnerability to natural hazards in western Nepal and has aimed to assess social vulnerability in 40 districts of the Western regions of Nepal. Altogether, 9 indicators and 17 variables were selected based on various existing literature. 2011 census data was used for data extraction. A generalized deductive approach was used for the assessment. All the variables considered were normalized to a common scale from 0 to 1 for the calculation of SoVI. The aggregated index of the overall social vulnerability was then plotted in the QGIS to map the spatial distribution of social vulnerability. Results show us that most of the vulnerable areas fall under the mid-western and far-western parts which include the hilly and mountain region of provinces 6 and 7. The sum of results shows that 5% of the districts fall under a very high vulnerable level, whereas 25% of districts fall under the highly vulnerable level. The least vulnerable areas are located mostly in the western region and extend along the Terai region. The overall vulnerability map, as well as the indicator-specific maps, were prepared through this research. Those maps are an imperative tool that help to identify the social delimitations to disaster resiliency activities. The results of this study have the potential in contributing to policymaking and preparedness, emergency planning, public awareness, and altogether in creating a more successful and focused crisis response program.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Gaire, S., Delgado, R.C., González, P.A.: Disaster risk profile and existing legal framework of Nepal: floods and landslides. Risk Manage. Healthcare Pol. 8, 139 (2015)
MoHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) and DPNet (National Disaster Preparedness Network— Nepal) (2009) National Disaster Report 2009: The Hazards and Vulnerability. Kathmandu: Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) and National Disaster Preparedness Network— Nepal (DPNet)
Koirala, P.K.: Country profile: Nepal. Disaster Management Instution and System in Nepal (2014)
Gautam, D.: Assessment of social vulnerability to natural hazards in Nepal. Nat. Hazard. 17, 2313–2320 (2017)
Dewan, T.H.: Societal impacts and vulnerability to floods in Bangladesh and nepal. Weather Clim Extremes 7, 36–42 (2015)
Mosquera-Machado, S., Dilley, M.: A comparison of selected global disaster risk assessment results. Nat. Hazards 48(3), 439–456 (2009)
United Nations Development Program/Bureau of Crisis Prevention and Recovery (UNDP/BCPR): Reducing disaster risk, A challenge for development, New York (2004)
Noji, E.K.: Public health in the aftermath of disasters. BMJ 330(7504), 1379–1381 (2005)
Watson, J.T., Gayer, M., Connolly, M.A.: Epidemics after natural disasters. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 13(1), 1e5
Aryal, K.R.: The history of disaster incidents and impacts in Nepal 1900–2005. Int. J. Disaster Risk Sci. 3(3), 147–154 (2012)
Cutter, S.L., Boruff, B.J., Shirley, W.L.: Social vulnerability to environmental hazards. Soc. Sci. Q. 84(3), 242 (2003)
Frigerio, I., Ventura, S., Strigaro, D., Mattavelli, M., De Amicis, M., Mugnano, S., Boffi, M.: A GIS-based approach to identify the spatial variability of social vulnerability to seismic hazard in Italy. Appl. Geogr. 74, 12–22 (2016)
Flanagan, B.E., Gregory, E.W., Hallisey, E.J., Heitgerd, J.L., Lewis, B.: A social vulnerability index for disaster management. J. Homeland Secur. Emerg. Manag. 8(1) (2011)
Yoon, D.K.: Assessment of social vulnerability to natural disasters: a comparative study. Nat. Hazards 63(2), 823–843 (2012)
Chakraborty, J., Montz, B.E., Tobin, G.A.: Population evacuation: assessing spatial variability in geophysical risk and social vulnerability to natural hazards. Nat. Hazards Rev. 6(1), 23–33 (2005)
Wu, S.Y., Yarnal, B., Fisher, A.: Vulnerability of coastal communities to sea-level rise: a case study of Cape May County, New Jersey, USA. Clim. Res. 22, 255–270 (2002)
Aksha, S.K., Juran, L., Resler, L.M., Zhang, Y.: An analysis of social vulnerability to natural hazards in Nepal using a modified social vulnerability index. Int. J. Disaster Risk Sci. 10(1), 103–116 (2019)
Cutter, S.L., Mitchell, J.T., Scott, M.S.: Revealing the vulnerability of people and places: a case study of Georgetown County, South Carolina. Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. 90(4), 713–737 (2000)
Martin, S.A.: A framework to understand the relationship between social factors that reduce resilience in cities: application to the City of Boston. Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduct. 12, 53–80 (2015)
Chaulagain, H., Gautam, D., Rodrigues, H.: Revisiting major historical earthquakes in Nepal: Overview of 1833, 1934, 1980, 1988, 2011, and 2015 seismic events. In: Impacts and Insights of the Gorkha Earthquake, pp. 1–17 (2018)
NPC. Nepal Earthquake 2015. Post Disaster Needs Assessment. Sector Reports. Kathmandu: National Planning Commission, Government of Nepal (2015)
Chen, W., Cutter, S.L., Emrich, C.T., Shi, P.: Measuring social vulnerability to natural hazards in the Yangtze River Delta region, China. Int. J. Disaster Risk Sci. 4(4), 169–181 (2013)
Dwyer, A., Zoppou, C., Nielsen, O., Day, S., Roberts, S.: Quantifying social vulnerability: a methodology for identifying those at risk to natural hazards (2004)
Philip, D., Rayhan, M.: Frustration-aggression hypothesis: examination and reformulation. Psychol. Bull. 106(1), 59 (1989)
Philip, D., Rayhan, M.I.: Vulnerability and Poverty: what are the causes and how are they related. ZEF Bonn, center for Development Research, University of Bonn (2004)
Berkowitz, L.: Frustration-aggression hypothesis: examination and reformulation. Psychol. Bull. 106(1), 59 (1989)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Moktan, S., Kafle, K.R., Chapagain, S. (2022). Social Vulnerability Assessment to Natural Hazards in Western Nepal. In: Pal, I., Kolathayar, S. (eds) Sustainable Cities and Resilience. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 183. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5543-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5543-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-5542-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-5543-2
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)