Identifying Factors to Develop and Validate Social Vulnerability to Floods in Malaysia: A Systematic Review Study

Abstract

Flood disasters, a natural hazard throughout human history, have caused significant damage to human safety and infrastructure. This paper presents a systematic study using databases from Springer Link, Science Direct, JSTOR, and Web of Science. The study employs the PRISMA report analysis method to examine 11 flood disaster case studies between 2010 and 2022. The findings reveal that demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, and access to healthcare crucially determine social vulnerability to adverse flood events. Notably, risk perception and coping capacity also received substantial attention in the case studies. Unfortunately, many indicators of social vulnerability fail to adequately consider the influence of these factors. The effects of factors that make communities vulnerable vary across disaster stages and countries. This emphasizes the importance of considering specific situations and locations when understanding the origins and consequences of vulnerability. The article concludes by offering recommendations to customize quantitative indicators of social vulnerability to flood contexts, covering aspects such as temporal context, measurability, and indicator relationships.