VULNERABILITY IN BANGLADESH

·Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard. Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.

·The concept of vulnerability is a significant contribution to our understanding of natural disasters

·It implies the vulnerable state of populations and settlements. The degree of susceptibility to damage, destruction and death in those settlements is conditioned by the decisions and actions of society over time. This means that there exists a social, institutional and political responsibility for a major portion of those causes, and for making efforts to remove, alleviate or to defend against them. Social and political issues mat have had a greater part to play

·Vulnerability is the product of sets of prevailing conditions within which disasters may occur. Vulnerability has to be addressed therefore, not only by post-disaster concern and response, but as a part of the day-to-day management of change-whether or not that changes is called development.

The pervasive conditions of vulnerability cannot be allocated as the responsibility of one desk or department or sector; they are the prerogative of all desks, departments for all kinds of business and activity, both policy and practice. The policies and activities of some sectors may even inadvertently contribute to the causes of ‘natural disasters’.

·Separation of post-disaster responses from pre-disaster contexts inhibits the creation of necessarily wider strategies.

·Vulnerability is often interpreted as a physical state of exposure related to location and quality of construction. Vulnerability becomes manifest when locations and constructions are seriously affected by storms, flooding or landslide for example, and when some poorer areas of construction sustain more damage than others.

Vulnerability is a characteristic that influences damage: some countries absorb and recover more readily than others because of physical assets (building design and strength), social capital (community structure, trust, and family networks, and political access (ability to get government help and affect policies and decisions). Measures to reduce vulnerability include mitigation (which reduces the hazard’s likelihood, as in reforesting the slopes to prevent rapid runoff and floods or reducing greenhouse gas emissions to reduce the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events), prevention (measures to reduce damage, as with higher plinths for floods), preparedness (evacuation plans) and relief (help after a disaster).

Recently, the term vulnerability has increasingly been used in environmental sciences, ecology, resource management and development, in particular concerning the phenomena of global change and the Earth system.

Vulnerability of susceptibility could be any one or a combination of the following and their exposure to the hazard.

·People

·Assets

·Preparedness

·Time

Vulnerability is measured as low, medium or high depending upon the combination of the above factors

·Age specific vulnerability: A child or an old person, because of little understanding or low mobility, may not be able to evacuate as quickly in case of an earthquake or prediction of a storm (cyclone, tornado etc.)

·Weak and or unauthorized buildings: Buildings and infrastructure facilities built without codal provisions for disaster impacts are more vulnerable than those designed and built with resilience and structural stability towards disasters like earthquake, cyclone, and tsunami.

·High density of buildings and narrow lanes: Spatial congestions cause faster spread of an epidemic as an aftermath of any disaster. Also spatial congestions in lanes and by-lanes cause restrictions to mobility of fire tenders or evacuation equipment after disasters like fires or earthquake.

·Timing of disaster impact or hit: Occurrence of disasters during the night renders inhabitants more vulnerable than during the day. For example, an earthquake in rural areas would cause more causality in the night when people are sleeping than during the day when they are working in the fields. (Example- night time earthquake in Maharashtra, India.

Having identified hazards and factors that define the vulnerability in your particular area or situation, a complete Vulnerability Factor Analysis Sheet can be developed (see Table 1 below). For example, based on your judgment of the exposure levels of the people and assets, identify factors that render your organization or settlement vulnerable to a hazard, say an earthquake.

Table 1: Vulnerability Factor Analysis

People / Settlements	Place	Preparedness	Time
Age	Buildings (use and design)	Capacity to respond	Time of the day
Population density	Heritage	Mitigation plan	Day of the week
Gender	Critical facilities	Education and training	Day of the month
Ethnicity	Ecological sites	Warning systems	Time of the year
Socio-economic status	Infrastructure services	State of practicing drills	Seasons
Disability	Natural resources	Savings and insurance	Weather conditions
Social or political rivalry		Integration, collaboration and networking	Lunar time
Location

·Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.  Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.

·Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.  Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.

·Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.  Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.

·Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.  Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.

·Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.  Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.

• Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.
• Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.
• Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.
• Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.
• Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.
• Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.
• Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.
• Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.
• Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.
• Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to a natural hazard.Vulnerability, as the degree of susceptibility, may be interpreted as simply a matter of location or place—and some places are more vulnerable than others.

The conditions determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards. It may possible to define as the extent to which a community, structure, service, and/or geographic area is likely to be damaged or disrupted by the impact of a particular hazard, on account of their nature, construction and proximity to hazardous terrain or a disaster prone area.

Geographical factors

·         Deltaic low lands (30% land above 1m from sea level)

·         Vast floodplains and wetlands

·         Riverine country

·         Hills and uplands

·         Funnel shape coast

·         Hot and humid monsoon climate

·         Regional and global geographic location and settings

Anthropogenic factors

·         High density of population

·         Mass poverty

·         Low human resource development (HRD) index

·         Gender disparity

·         Dense settlements and physical  infrastructure

·         Agrarian society

·         Poor governance, corruptions and lack of political commitment