Social vulnerability is defined as the organizations, people, and the societies’ inability to withstand negative impacts due to multiple stressors that they are exposed to. Such impacts are mostly coming from disasters and natural hazards that create risks and potential damages to properties and threatens the people’s lives. This writing will describe this terminology based on the demographics of the social vulnerability. This study will also explain how emergency managers can use such information to their advantage, especially during the response, mitigation, and recovery phases of emergency management. We argue that understanding the significance of social vulnerability will help emergency managers in developing effective emergency plans.
Social Vulnerability
Social vulnerability is a concept that has been defined as the society’s ability to anticipate, resist, cope with, and even recover from the effects of any form of natural hazard (FEMA, n.d.). On the other hand, there is also what has been called as people’s physical vulnerability, which refers to individuals’ susceptibility against any biological changes, such as the effects due to anatomical structures as well as physiological functioning. Thus, it varies in every community as well as in every household within such community. There are various factors that influence the vulnerability of the society. These include lack of access to transportation, poverty, and even crowded housing (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). These factors weaken the community’s ability in preventing financial loss and human suffering once a disaster strikes.
It is important that emergency managers understand these factors in order to improve their emergency planning and preparedness when it comes to helping the community. Responding to emergencies can be more effective if emergency managers themselves are knowledgeable about the certain vulnerabilities of the community.
Moreover, the emergency managers must be knowledgeable about the Social Vulnerability Index or SVI, which uses the United States census in order to determine such social vulnerability of every area (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). This is just one of the various information that the planners must be aware of to their advantage as it can be used for emergency planning and response. Additionally, having the right information about the demographics of social vulnerability will help the emergency managers in estimating the amount of supplies that are needed before or after the emergency has occurred, such as water, food, and medicine supplies. Managers will also be able to decide how many personnel are still needed to help the community as well as determining the areas that need emergency shelters.
On the other hand, if emergency managers fail to use these information, emergency plans are more likely to be compromised. For example, emergency managers will not be able to develop the best plan in terms of mass evacuation as well as disabling them to identify the communities that might need a continuous support towards disaster recovery. It is essential that emergency managers are able to gather much information about the demographics of social vulnerability not only to increase their efficiency, but also to help save more lives as possible.
Environmental hazards and disaster impacts are influential factors that affect the vulnerability of the people. Although some events are controllable and avoidable, other may occur unexpectedly. Given the high vulnerability of some communities, effective emergency planning would play essential roles in reducing the adverse impacts of such events against the affected community. Thus, an effective emergency planning can be achieved through understanding the different demographics encompassing the social vulnerability.
References
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). The Social Vulnerability Index. Retrieved May 4, 2016, from http://svi.cdc.gov/Documents/FactSheet/SVIFactSheet.pdf
FEMA. (n.d.). Emergency Management Institute (EMI) | AEMRC - Fundamentals of Emergency Management. Retrieved May 4, 2016, from http://training.fema.gov/hiedu/aemrc/booksdownload/fem/
