Definitions of Vulnerability
Adger (2000)
'Individual and collective vulnerability and public policy determine the social vulnerability to hazards and environmental risks, defines here as the presence or lack of ability to withstand shocks and stresses to livelihood (following Chambers 1989; Watts and Bohle 1993; Adger 1999)'

Alexander (1993)
'Human vulnerability is a function of the costs and benefits of inhabiting areas at risk from natural disaster.'

Blaikie et al. (1994)
'By vulnerability we mean the characteristics of a person or group in terms of their capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a natural hazard. It involves a combination of factors that determine the degree to which someone's life and livelihood are put at risk by a discrete and identifiable event in nature or in society.'

Board (1989)
'Vulnerability is operationally defined as the inability to take effective measures to insure against losses. When applied to individuals vulnerability is a consequence of the impossibility or improbability of effective mitigation and is a function of our ability to detect the hazards.'

Bohle et al. (1994)
'Vulnerability is best described as an aggregate measure of human welfare that integrates environmental, social, economic and political exposure to a range of potential harmful perturbations. Vulnerability is a multilayered and multidimensional social space defined by the determinate, political, economic and institutional capabilities of people in specific places at specific times.'

Cannon (1994)
'Vulnerability is a measure of the degree and type of exposure to risk generated by different societies in relation to hazards. Vulnerability is the a characteristic of individuals and groups of people who inhabit a given natural, social and economic space, within which they are differentiated according to their varying position in society into more or less vulnerable individuals and groups.'

Chambers (1989)
'Vulnerability refers to exposure to contingencies and stress, and difficulty in coping with them. Vulnerability has thus two sides: an external side of risks, shocks, and stress to which an individual or household is subject: and an internal side which is defenselessness, meaning a lack of means to cope without damaging loss.'

Cutter (1993)
'Vulnerability is the likelihood that an individual or group will be exposed to and adversely affected by a hazard. It is the interaction of the hazards of place (risk and mitigation) with the social profile of communities.'

Cutter (1996)
'Vulnerability is conceived as both a biophysical risk as well as a social response, but within a specific areal or geographic domain. This can be geographic space, where vulnerable people and places are located, or social space—who in those places is most vulnerable.'

Cutter et al. (2000)
'Broadly defined, vulnerability is the potential for loss of property or life from environmental hazards. '

Dow (1992)
'Vulnerability is the differential capacity of groups and individuals to deal with hazards based on their positions within physical and social worlds.'

Dow and Downing (1995)
'Vulnerability is the differential susceptibility of circumstances contributing to Vulnerability. Biophysical, demographic, economic, social and technological factors such as population ages, economic dependency, racism and age of infrastructure are some factors which have been examined in association with natural hazards.'

Downing (1991b)
'Vulnerability has three connotations: it refers to a consequence (e.g., famine) rather than a cause (e.g., drought); it implies an adverse consequence; and it is a relative term that differentiates among socioeconomic groups or regions, rather than an absolute measure of deprivation.'

Gabor and Griffith (1980)
'Vulnerability is the threat (to hazardous materials) to which people are exposed (including chemical agents and the ecological situation of the communities and their level of emergency preparedness). Vulnerability is the risk context.'

IPCC (1997)
'Vulnerability is defined as the extent to which a natural or social system is susceptible to sustaining damage from climate change. Vulnerability is a function of the sensitivity of a system to changes in climate and the ability to adapt to system to changes in climate. Under this framework, a highly vulnerable system would be one that is highly sensitive to modest changes in climate.'

Kates (1985)
'Vulnerability is the capacity to suffer harm and react adversely.'

Liverman (1990a)
'Distinguishes between vulnerability as a biophysical condition and vulnerability as defined by political, social and economic conditions of society…vulnerability is defined both in geographic space (where vulnerable people and places are located) and in social space (who in that place is vulnerable).'

Living with Risk: A Global Review of Disaster Reduction Initiatives. UN
'The conditions determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards.'

Mitchell (1989)
'Vulnerability is the potential for loss.'

Pijawka and Radian (1985)
' Vulnerability is the threat or interaction between risk and preparedness. It is the degree to which hazardous materials threaten a particular population (risk) and the capacity of the community to reduce the risk or adverse consequences of hazardous materials releases.'

Smith (1992)
'Risk from a specific hazard varies through time and according to changes in either (or both) physical exposure or human vulnerability (the breadth of social and economic tolerance available at the same site).'

Social vulnerability
'Complex local networks sustain humans in normal times. Human vulnerabilities during change, hazard, disaster or conflict related to global warming are usually a matter of disruption of these networks. Ursula Springer Oswald, lecture to the MunichRe UNU EHS summer academy, 2006 '

Social vulnerability as critique
'Social vulnerability is a critique of the modern project to create a rational society; it is fundamentally a political enterprise, of social critique of the failure of society. Tony Oliver-Smith, interpreted from remarks to the UNU EHS and MunichRe Summer Academy, 2006'

Susman et al. (1984)
' Vulnerability is the degree to which different classes of society are differentially at risk.'

Timmerman (1981)
' Vulnerability is the degree to which a system acts adversely to the occurrence of a hazardous event. The degree and quality of the adverse reaction are conditioned by a system's resilience (a measure of the system's capacity to absorb and recover from the event).'

UNDP (2004) Reducing Disaster Risk: A Challenge for Development.
'A human condition or process resulting from physical, social, economic and environmental factors, which determine the likelihood and scale of damage from the impact of a given hazard.'

UNDRO (1982)
' Vulnerability is the degree of loss to a given element or set of elements at risk resulting from the occurrence of a natural phenomenon of a given magnitude.'

UNEP (1999)
'Vulnerability is a function of sensitivity to present climatic variability, the risk of adverse future climate change and capacity to adapt…The extent to which climate change may damage or harm a system; vulnerability is a function of not only the systems' sensitivity, but also its ability to adapt to new climatic conditions.'

Vogel (1998)
'Vulnerability is perhaps best defined in terms of resilience and susceptibility including such dimensions as physical, social, cultural and psychological vulnerability and capacities that are usually viewed against the backdrop of gender, time, space and scale (e.g. Anderson and Woodrow, 1989)'

Watts and Bohle (1993)
'Vulnerability is defined in terms of exposure, capacity and potentiality. Accordingly, the prescriptive and normative response to vulnerability is to reduce exposure, enhance coping capacity, strengthen recovery potential and bolster damage control (i.e., minimize destructive consequences) via private and public means.'