Decision Support for Disaster Risk Management: Integrating Vulnerabilities into Early-Warning Systems

Despite the potential of new technologies and the improvements of early-warning systems since the 2004 Tsunami, damage and harm caused by disasters do not stop to increase. There is a clear need for better integrating the fragmented landscape of researchers and practitioners working on different aspects of decision support for disaster risk reduction and response. To demonstrate and discuss the advantages of integrated systems, we will focus in this paper on vulnerabilities and early-warning systems. While vulnerabilities are mostly used to allocate risk management resources (preparedness), early-warning systems are designed to initiate the response phase. Indicator models have been used as a part of disaster risk reduction frameworks, and in the design of early-warning systems. In this paper we analyse the commonalities and differences between both, and outline how an integrated system that understands vulnerability assessments as part of both risk reduction programs and early-warning shall be designed in future.