Estimate Social Vulnerability Index to Climate Change in Mexico

Abraham Granados, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Vulnerability is a socially constructed phenomenon influenced by institutional and economic dynamics. Social vulnerability is product of social inequalities. The estimation vulnerability index to climate change is based on different findings in literature on vulnerability, mainly “New Indicators of Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity, which provides factors to determine the social vulnerability”, Adger, et al., (2004), and also correlations with effects of weather events over the past in Mexico. Natural disasters are differential impact on the territory, depending on regional social vulnerability. It is expected that the most socially vulnerable regions are most affected by adverse climatic events. This research identified similar vulnerable index cluster in 2000 and 2010 in southern Mexico, Veracruz, Puebla, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas, and Estado de México just 2010. The evidence concludes there is a relationship between social vulnerability index and natural disasters in Mexico.