Driving factors for social vulnerability to coastal hazards in Southeast Asia: results from the meta-analysis

Several decades of research has produced considerable understanding of the complex and interacting factors contributing to the construction of social vulnerability to natural hazards. However, natural hazards remain a considerable challenge to poverty reduction and development in many countries around the world and particularly in South and Southeast Asia. The objective of this paper is to undertake a comprehensive systematic analysis of the scientific literature on coastal hazards to identify the factors contributing to hazard vulnerability, to determine the relationships between them, and to review recommendations for vulnerability reduction. With the employment of meta-analysis methodology, 361 social-economic impacting factors to vulnerability are determined, as well as the complex causal relationship between them. Combined with the analysis on the current popular recommendations in the literature, some important insights into the gaps between the driving factors and the coping policy and measures are concluded. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010