Resilience and Vulnerability in Urban Disaster Management

In recent years, the term resilience has gain influence in the study of disaster management. Along with vulnerability, those terms have become two of the most commonly used concepts in the field. This paper will argue both resilience and vulnerability are useful concepts to urban disaster management. It does so by first looking at the definitions of those two terms, follow by practical measures in which by adopting both concepts can help enhance disaster management.

There are various definitions of resilience and vulnerability that have been used throughout time (Manyena, 2006). For the purpose of this paper, resilience is referred to here as the capacity of a group or individual to withstand potential loss and recover from the impact of a disaster. On the other hand, vulnerability is a broad measure of the propensity to suffer loss or damage. Though two definitions may seem different, but both of them stem from observed differences in how well individuals is going to cope with the challenges posed by disasters situations such as bush fire or hurricane (Buckle, Marsh & Smale, 200...