The Risk-Hazard Approach

Vulnerability is a concept important to the analysis of the complex relationships between the natural environment and the spaces in which humans occupy within the global and local environment. While these relationships are complex, it is clear that the environment can impact human lives and activities just as human activities can impact the environment. The way in which these relationships are assessed along the lines of impact, is based on the concept of vulnerability that looks at who is in danger to harm and how they are in danger to experiencing harm. This essay will focus on the concept of vulnerability in relations to one of the three lineages in vulnerability approach and research by using the Risk-Hazard approach outlined in Eakin and

By using the works of two papers that deal with the post-tsunami Sri Lanka, I will explain how these two papers build on the Risk-Hazard approach. The case study draws from the one paper by Kaplan, Renaud & Security (2009) and the other paper by Birkmann and Fernando (2008) in which both refer to the Risk-Hazard approach by making very clear the research framework they were following. Having outlined briefly the order and focus of the Risk-hazard approach in which researchers first look at the exposure, then the sensitivity and lastly the resilience of the affected area, this part aims to show and explain how the vulnerability researchers apply the Risk-Hazard framework. It is important to clarify that between the two papers, the area of focus is slightly different because the Kaplan et al., (2009) paper looks predominantly at the impact of the tsunami on the livelihoods of the people and society in Sri Lanka, while the Birkmann and Fernando (2008) paper looks more on the impact on the people’s possessions and houses after the tsunami hit. It is also worth mentioning that the Kaplan et al. (2009) paper also focused more on the vegetation growing in the different parts of Sri Lanka. The next paragraph will explain the structure of the

What is useful in the Risk-Hazard approach is that it does not only look at the impact of the natural disaster in biophysical terms, but also acknowledges the complex relationship between the socioeconomic processes that also impact the vulnerability of the overall system within the area of study (Kasperson et al., 2005: 145). However, according to the case study of Sri Lanka, some limitations have been identified. In the case study provided by Birkmann and Fernando’s (2008) paper, they identified that because of the nature and structure of the Risk-Hazard approach framework, they were not able to illustrate clearly how the differences in social groupings/hierarchies had an effect on the people’s respective vulnerability, hence limiting them to providing generalisations (Birkmann and Fernando, 2008: 101). Interestingly enough, the Kaplan et al. (2009) paper took the liberty of combining two framework approaches so to extend the scope of vulnerability research to include the social