Social-Physical Vulnerability Adaptation Index

01/12/21

“How can we combine social and physical vulnerability indexes into one metric for adaptation?”

In adaptation research and planning, social and physical vulnerability indexes are often used discretely from one another. However, this need not always be the case. Using the proper statistical methodologies, both of these can be combined into a single Social-Physical Vulnerability Adaptation Index. With this, we can get a complete picture of how vulnerable a geographic territory or population may be to climate events. For example, a wealthy city in the WUI may be highly physically vulnerable to wildfire but not socially, while the opposite may be true for a port town.

• Earth/Climate science
• Policy