Development of a Human Vulnerability Index (HVI)
by
Nazmul Hossain
United Nations Environmental Programme, Sioux Falls, SD 57198, USA
Coauthors: Ashbindu Singh

Climate change, extreme events and other environmental changes can potentially affect people and economy. A great deal of uncertainty accompanies predictions of the potential effects of vulnerability associated with such events. One way to obviate the effects of this uncertainty on the design of policies is to understand the manner in which populations are currently vulnerable to different types of hazards. This paper reviews and attempts methods for constructing a composite index of vulnerability using Geographic information System (GIS) tools. The index is constructed after evaluating different indicators according to their relative importance. This index allows comparison of relative vulnerability to people due to environmental changes. It is a powerful way of measuring and characterizing the potential harm to people arising from extreme variability. Through the application of this index, location of vulnerable population could be identified in a geographic domain, where the government and concerned agencies can pay special attention.

Date received: October 9, 2000

Copyright © 2000 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # cafr-18.