A meta-analysis of the relationship between disaster vulnerability and disaster damage

Abstract

Disaster vulnerability is closely related to property damage and human losses, and high levels of vulnerability to disaster can lead to greater damage or longer recovery time. Many studies have examined vulnerability to disaster and identified its link with disaster damage. Nonetheless, the reports on the effects of disaster vulnerability on damage differ by specific elements of the research design of studies, including regions, disaster types, and spatial unit of analysis. This meta-analysis attempted to analyze the connection between studies to reveal the common tendency of the relationship between vulnerability and disaster damage, including property damage and human losses. We examined the common effects of socioeconomic vulnerability factors (population density, GDP, low-income households, and older adult population) on disaster damage in 38 studies. We conducted a subgroup analysis to identify the heterogeneity of the effects by disaster type and spatial unit of analysis of the included studies. The results showed that the older adult population and low-income households were positively associated with disaster damage. At the community level, population density, older adult population, and low-income households were positively associated with disaster damage, whereas GDP tended to reduce disaster damage at the national level. This study contributes to the literature by providing reference data for the identification of vulnerability factors that can influence disaster damage reduction. It also provides insights for disaster management policymaking and effective disaster risk reduction by considering different disaster types and spatial scales.