TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2016//
TI  - Vulnerability assessments as a political creation: tsunami management in Portugal
JO  - Disasters
A1  - Pronk, Maartje
A1  - Maat, Harro
A1  - Crane, Todd A.
SP  - 728
EP  - 747
VL  - 41
IS  - 4
N2  - Vulnerability assessments are a cornerstone of contemporary disaster research. This paper shows how research procedures and the presentation of results of vulnerability assessments are politically filtered. Using data from a study of tsunami risk assessment in Portugal, the paper demonstrates that approaches, measurement instruments, and research procedures for evaluating vulnerability are influenced by institutional preferences, lines of communication, or lack thereof, between stakeholder groups, and available technical expertise. The institutional setting and the pattern of stakeholder interactions form a filter, resulting in a particular conceptualisation of vulnerability, affecting its operationalisation via existing methods and technologies and its institutional embedding. The Portuguese case reveals a conceptualisation that is aligned with perceptions prevalent in national government bureaucracies and the exclusion of local stakeholders owing to selected methodologies and assessment procedures. The decisions taken by actors involved in these areas affect how vulnerability is assessed, and ultimately which vulnerability reduction policies will be recommended in the appraisal.<br><br>© 2016 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2016.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0361-3666
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/disa.12223
ID  - ref1
ER  -