The Department of Sociology and Anthropology
School of Social Sciences
Ateneo de Manila University

invites you to the MA Sociology Thesis Defense of

Mr. Justin Charles G. See

Assessing Social Vulnerability to Flooding in Metro Manila Using Statistical Analyses and System Dynamics Modeling

Schedule:
June 27 (Friday)
1:00pm, LH-306

Thesis Adviser:
Emma Porio, Ph.D

Panelists:
Ricardo Abad, Ph.D
Ms. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga
Liza Lim, Ph.D
Andrea Soco-Roda, Ph.D

Thesis Abstract:
Earlier works measuring urban vulnerability to impacts of extreme weather events such as flooding focused largely on the physical and meteorological components, highlighting the need to develop methodologies/tools that will include the social dimensions that will broaden our understanding of the phenomenon. This study asks: “How do we characterize and measure social vulnerability to flooding among Metro Manila residents?” The study analyzed social vulnerability to flooding by utilizing: (1) principal component analysis to construct the social vulnerability index scores, using census and household survey data; and (2) system dynamics analysis to track the loss of system performance due to adverse impacts of flooding, as well as the potential recovery of the system in time due to adaptive measures. This study found that 1) social vulnerability is not homogeneous but quite complex and diverse, depending on the local contexts and across various levels of analysis; 2) integrating the social characteristics of political-administrative units with ecological-environmental factors result in a more refined and enhanced measure of social vulnerability. Finally, this study illustrated how system dynamics can be used to supplement principal component analyses, and can be used as a decision-support tool for disaster risk management.