Zeitschrift für Geographie und Naturkatastrophen
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THE HIDING VULNERABILITIES OF CITIES CASE OF BOUMERDES DISASTER IN 2003

Farida Sehili, Said Madani& Nancy Meschinet de Richemond

Actually the hazards are not the direct causes of disaster, the degree of vulnerability of populations to hazards do not depend solely on the proximity of the source of threat or the physical nature of hazard, social factors also plays an important role in determining vulnerability. According to the risk management model, physical and social vulnerability are linked to the place of vulnerability. In this research we explain disparities of losses and damages after the disaster of Boumerdes cities in 2003. We assess the relation between social and physical vulnerabilities and how they built the disaster of 2003. A geographic information system was used to establish areas of vulnerability based upon the expertise of the built environment and 10 social characteristics for the cities of Boumerdes Province.The important result is the intersection of degrees of physical vulnerability with those of social vulnerability; the other result is that the most socially vulnerable cities are those living in areas of high physical vulnerability. This manuscript contributes to the development of a general theory on disasters as an intersection between social and physical vulnerabilities and highlights the importance of integrating vulnerabilities into risk and disaster reduction policies in Algeria.