Spatial assessment of social vulnerability in the context of landmines and explosive remnants of war in Battambang province, Cambodia

Hagenlocher, Michael, Hölbling, Daniel, Kienberger, Stefan, Vanhuysse, Sabine and Zeil, Peter, (2016). Spatial assessment of social vulnerability in the context of landmines and explosive remnants of war in Battambang province, Cambodia. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 15 148-161

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  • Sub-type Journal article
    Author Hagenlocher, Michael
    Hölbling, Daniel
    Kienberger, Stefan
    Vanhuysse, Sabine
    Zeil, Peter
    Title Spatial assessment of social vulnerability in the context of landmines and explosive remnants of war in Battambang province, Cambodia
    Appearing in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
    Volume 15
    Publication Date 2016-03-01
    Place of Publication n/a
    Publisher Elsevier B.V
    Start page 148
    End page 161
    Language eng
    Abstract Despite recent progress in reducing the number of victims, landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) cause more than 3000 causalities every year, particularly affecting the most vulnerable. Current mine action programmes, however, do not consider prevailing vulnerabilities of affected communities in their priority-setting systems. We emphasise the need to consider social vulnerability in the workflow of mine action, and apply a spatially explicit approach for its assessment at a sub-national scale in Cambodia, one of the world's most heavily affected countries. Drawing on available literature and focus group discussions with domain experts, 16 socioeconomic, demographic and distance-related vulnerability indicators were identified. The Analytical Hierarchy Process was used to obtain indicator weights, revealing that using firewood for cooking, distance to hospitals and health centres, occupation in the primary sector, poverty, conflict density, illiteracy and living in a rural area are key factors shaping social vulnerability in the context of landmines and ERW. Results were visualised using both 2×2 km2 grids and sub-district administrative units, a resolution often used by the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA). The results show that social vulnerability is very heterogeneous across the study area (Battambang province) with varying contributions of the underlying indicators. Significant hot spots were identified in the central, north-western, north-eastern, and southern parts of the province. The presented approach provides the means not only to assess but also monitor progress of reconstruction measures to strengthen the resilience of communities exposed to post-conflict impacts such as landmines.
    UNBIS Thesaurus CAMBODIA
    LANDMINES
    Keyword Social vulnerability
    Explosive remnants of war (ERW)
    Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)
    Mine action
    Copyright Holder The Authors
    Copyright Year 2016
    Copyright type Creative commons
    DOI 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2015.11.003
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    Created: Thu, 14 Apr 2016, 23:00:49 JST