Integrated Vulnerability Assessment Framework for Atoll Islands

This resource material is designed as a generic guide for planning, implementing and reporting an integratedvulnerability assessment (IVA) that targets atoll communities in the Pacific Islands region. It is based on a sustainablelivelihoods-based approach that combines the assessment of vulnerability to both climate change and disasters. Ananalysis of previous vulnerability assessment approaches in the Pacific Islands region suggests the importance ofmerging vulnerability and risk-based assessments as depicted in Figure 1 (Gero et al. 2011). The fifth assessmentreport of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines vulnerability as the ‘propensity orpredisposition to be adversely affected’, which includes ‘sensitivity or susceptibility to harm and lack of capacity tocope and adapt (IPCC 2007). Similarly, vulnerability is defined by the United Nations International Strategy forDisaster Reduction (UNISDR 2011) as the ‘characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or asset thatmake it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard’.