Resilience And Vulnerability

When discussing hazard analysis and risk management, some people believe that the underlying vulnerabilities should be assessed as opposed to the specific hazards that a community may encounter. In Social Inequality, Hazards, and Disasters, Kathleen Tierney describes the people that are most vulnerable during a disaster and the ways in which vulnerability can be assessed in at-risk populations. Tierney addresses many instances in which social vulnerability is connected to disaster, especially for specific at-risk groups. According to Tierney, "socially produced risk or vulnerability is the risks and hazards produced by economic activity that has adverse impacts or similarly, cultural processes that contribute to how particular risks are defined,

According to Tierney, "the concept of resilience refers to the capacity to endure disaster impacts, and also to cope with those impacts and recover as rapidly as possible with the two components of resilience being inherent resilience and adaptive resilience" (Tierney, 2006). Vulnerability relates to resilience because the more vulnerable groups of societies would not be able to recover as quickly from a disaster as the groups that are not as vulnerable. Inherent resilience is "the ability to withstand disasters without suffering extensive loss and disruption of everyday life activities" (Tierney, 2006). Tierney defines adaptive resilience as the "ability to adapt, improvise, and access resources following disasters" (Tierney, 2006). Inherent resilience is the capability to afford the luxury of living in communities that are not as susceptible to disasters because the people with inherent resilience have the resources to afford safer homes that have a better chance of enduring disasters or the funds to have savings accounts in the event of an emergency. Adaptive resilience is the capability for those that have been impacted by a disaster to pursue financial assistance or other assistance after a disaster. For instance, the white upper-class communities would be able to recover quickly from a disaster because they have the resources, such as savings accounts, knowledge and access to financial assistance, and homeowner's/renter's insurance to help with recovery; however, minority groups and poverty stricken communities would not be able to recover as quickly as the upper-class communities because they do not have access to savings, they are not knowledgeable in obtaining financial assistance or lack access to financial assistance, and most of those in the lower-class communities do not have adequate insurance coverage to cope and recover from a