The Vulnerability and Resilience concept: “a journey into definitions, approaches, and tools”
In this module you will find definitions, concepts and evaluation methodologies useful in vulnerability assessment and management. The module is meant to summarize the main theoretical and methodological elements in vulnerability assessment and management as elaborated and proposed by the ENSURE project working teams.
Here the ENSURE partners would also like to introduce both the importance of definitions themselves and the importance of the selection made during the working period. The huge variety of approaches, methodologies and assessment tools available in literature and practice requires a preliminary analysis to make it clear all the implications of such definitions in addressing assessment issues and activities: from the identification of hazards, the selection of indicators, the data collection and the elaboration of knowledge to the interpretation and evaluation process itself.
Moreover definitions are crucial for building the general framework of each issue and for answering questions like “how can we find the vulnerability profile of a certain territorial area?”, “which kind of vulnerability are we exploring?”, “which kind of territorial subjects and objects are exposed?”, “which are the main consequences in terms of expected damages?”, “how can we find the resilience profile of a certain territorial area?”.