Socio-Economic Vulnerability Assessment for Supporting a Sustainable Pandemic Management in Austria

Vanessa Streifeneder (), Stefan Kienberger, Steffen Reichel and Daniel Hölbling
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Vanessa Streifeneder: Department of Geoinformatics—Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Stefan Kienberger: Department of Geoinformatics—Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Steffen Reichel: Spatial Services GmbH, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Daniel Hölbling: Department of Geoinformatics—Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, 5020 Salzburg, Austria

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-23

Abstract: The outbreaks of a new pandemic in 2019 let humankind face a new type of challenge. People and groups in vulnerable situations were especially affected. Increasing urbanization, climate change, and global travel raise the likelihood of pandemics. COVID-19 has shown that sustainable and well-planned pandemic management is necessary, which also includes and identifies people in vulnerable situations. In this study, a socio-economic vulnerability assessment (VA) for supporting improved pandemic/epidemic risk management at the municipality level in Austria was conducted. The VA provides a holistic overview of the vulnerability under pre-event conditions in Austria, which can be used to support pandemic management. Therefore, we calculated a composite indicator with expert-based weighting. The necessary indicators were defined through a literature review and an expert consortium consisting of practical and scientific members. As a result, an interactive map containing the vulnerability index (VI) for each municipality was created, making it possible to also assess underlying vulnerable factors to support decision-making. The applicability of the VA was shown in the relationship between a high VI in a municipality and a high number of deaths. A limiting factor to the VA was the missing data for health indicators for the whole of Austria. Hence, we provide a list with recommendations on which data should be collected to improve the VA in the future.

Keywords: composite indicator; COVID-19; vulnerability index; expert-based weighting; web map (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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