Unveiling Social Vulnerability to Natural Hazards in the EEA and UK: A Systematic Review with Insights for Enhanced Emergency Planning and Risk Reduction

The interaction between natural hazards and the socio-economic environment implies multidisciplinary assessments that aim to integrate the physical and the socio-economic features of the affected territories. The quantification and mapping of social vulnerability, coupled with hazard assessment, could be a useful approach to support risk management strategies. With this aim, we carried on a systematic review on the role of social vulnerability in the natural hazard literature in the European Economic Area (EEA) and United Kingdom (UK) over the last twenty years. The various definitions, measurements and mapping of social vulnerability were studied, providing an instrument for conducting hazard assessment and demonstrating the relevance of multidisciplinary approach in disasters research. The PRISMA methodology and frequency analysis were used to extract and analyze the literature. According to our selection criteria, 95 papers were included in the final analysis. Results revealed that: i) 53 % of papers focuses on social vulnerability related to flood hazard, ii) 61 % of case studies include hazard assessment, while the rest only investigate the socio-economic component of vulnerability, iii) Portugal and Italy are the most investigated countries, iv) 51,6 % of papers carry out an integrated approach. The review underlines a pronounced perception of the scientific community to the more recurrent events (floods) rather than to the number of deaths (heat waves), leading to a discussion on the effected of climate change and suggestions for emergency planning in highly developed countries. Finally, a scheme of data integration between hazard, vulnerability and exposure is proposed.