Determinants of residential vulnerability to flood hazards in Metro Vancouver, Canada

Greg Oulahen (), Dan Shrubsole () and Gordon McBean ()

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2015, vol. 78, issue 2, 939-956

Abstract: What influences residents’ vulnerability to flood hazards in a Canadian coastal city? This study addresses the question by identifying and testing hypothetical determinants of residential vulnerability to flood hazards in Metro Vancouver. A household survey is conducted in four neighbourhoods in Vancouver and Surrey to test seven determinants: (1) social vulnerability, (2) hazard perception, (3) institutional arrangements, (4) amenity value conflicts, (5) self-protection, (6) attribution of responsibility, and (7) attenuation of risk due to another dominating concern. Survey findings offer insights into how these determinants interact to produce unequal vulnerability to flood hazards among residents in a Canadian city. The study finds that social vulnerability is an important factor in determining overall vulnerability to flood hazards. Household income, as a key contributor to social vulnerability, is found to have significant correlations with variables that define the other determinants. Institutional arrangements, including property insurance and development regulations, appear to interact with social vulnerability and the other determinants to allow powerful groups of people to live in hazardous places without taking on the full associated risk. The findings of the study have implications for our understanding of how vulnerability is produced and how, or whether, local policy can address these factors to equitably reduce risk. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Keywords: Hazards; Flood; Vulnerability; Determinants; Metro Vancouver (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1007/s11069-015-1751-5

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