AR5: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (PART B) - Chapters - Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Regional context

21.5.1.1. Indicators and Indices

Several attempts have been made to develop vulnerability indicators and indices (Atkins et al., 2000; Downing et al., 2001; Moss et al., 2001; Villa and McLeod, 2002; Lawrence et al., 2003; Luers et al., 2003; Cardona, 2007; Barr et al., 2010; Birkmann, 2011; Chen et al., 2011). Representation on a map or through an index is a common way to depict global vulnerability information and requires quantification of selected variables in order to measure them against a selected baseline, even though quantification of some qualitative information may not be possible (Luers et al., 2003; Edwards et al., 2007; Hinkel, 2011). Vulnerability is differentiated according to factors such as gender, age, livelihood, or access to social networks, among many other factors (Wisner et al., 2004; Cardona et al., 2012),which may not be represented accurately through some indicators.