Integrating vulnerability and gender-based analysis plus factors with hazard exposure as a socially inclusive and equitable risk assessment tool.
Liton Chakraborty is a senior policy analyst in the Emergency Management and Programs Branch (EMPB) at Public Safety Canada. Liton’s work centers on analyzing gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) factors and systemic inequities in policy decisions and governance issues related to disaster and emergency management. Liton developed a comprehensive social vulnerability index (SVI) for Canada through his doctoral research work at the University of Waterloo that helps assess place-based relative socioeconomic vulnerability. Understanding neighborhood-level vulnerability is an emerging area of new research in disaster risk reduction, which critically helps develop socially inclusive and equitable risk management strategies, aligning with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
Flooding is by far Canada’s most costly and common hazard and “Canada’s Number ONE Climate Risk.” Canada’s flood management policy paradigm is gradually transitioning to a risk-based hazards and disaster management approach, but Canada is flying blind! Canada’s risk assessment strategies are still fundamentally incomplete and flawed as these strategies do not incorporate social vulnerability measures. They are mainly based on the traditional flood map visualization approach (e.g., hazard extents-based mapping and exposure analysis), technological intervention, and physical environment control.
A solid foundation for prioritizing public investment in flood management policies and decisions that support GBA+, social justice as fairness, and vulnerability-based environmental equity principles in emergency management and disaster risk reduction.
Liton’s doctoral research was the novel contribution to explore equitable and effective flood risk assessment and management tools for Canada to pinpoint hotspots of flood risk across Canadian neighborhoods. The research provided an evaluation of nationwide flood-related environmental injustices/inequities through identification of “geographic flood-disadvantaged” areas and “systemic flood-disadvantaged” groups of communities by analyzing the degree to which the socially vulnerable populations are disproportionally affected by flooding.
The results inform risk-based flood management policies consistent with the Rawlsian distributive justice principle, that is, “to help those most flood disadvantaged neighborhoods first.” The results are useful for emergency managers who design policies that improve flood resilience at the community level. The research is critically important to detect flood-vulnerable racial/ethnic subgroups and geographical regions, where emergency management resources are needed most for preparedness, response, and recovery.
References:
Chakraborty, L. (2021). Social Equity Dimensions of Flood Risk Management in Canada. UWSpace. University of Waterloo. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10012/17156.
Chakraborty, L., Thistlethwaite, J., Minano, A., Henstra, D., & Scott, D. (2021). Leveraging hazard, exposure, and social vulnerability data to assess flood risk to Indigenous communities in Canada. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science. (Forthcoming).
Chakraborty, L., Rus, H., Henstra, D., Thistlethwaite, J., & Scott, D. (2020). A place-based socioeconomic status index: Measuring social vulnerability to flood hazards in the context of environmental justice. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 43, 101394.