Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and People

"Hazards are natural, disasters are not. Social processes generally result in unequal exposure to risk by making some people more disaster-prone than others. This book explores aspects of vulnerability as key to understanding risk and the human response to hazards. Critical to this understanding is an appreciation of how human systems place people at risk in relation to each other and the envronment--a relationship that can be best understood in terms of an individual, household, community, or societal vulnerability. These issues are examined through scholarly and case-study perspectives."--Natural Hazards Observer