Social vulnerability in affluent contexts : an in-depth analysis of social vulnerability in Zürich

This report develops a comprehensive view of the specific social situation in Zürich, and of the potentially important dynamics that could have an influence on social vulnerability in the city. Methodology: To better understand social vulnerability in Zürich, CSS’s research team conducted, in a first step, several written and face-to-face interviews with experts working with very different social groups in the city of Zürich on a day-to-day basis. The insights gained during the expert interviews were used, in a second step, for a refined quantitative analysis of social vulnerability in Zürich, and the economic, demographic and cultural factors that influence it. The basis for both the interviews and the quantitative analysis was a set of scenarios of natural and human-induced hazards that could affect the city of Zürich: Flooding, chemical accident, pandemic, heatwave, earthquake, and criminality. Of these possibilities, three hazards were ultimately chosen for detailed spatial analysis: chemical accidents, flooding, and heatwave. Temporal variability in social vulnerability: Although Zürich is an affluent city, there are parts of the population that would lack the resources to cope with and recover from a major disaster. In many cases, vulnerability to hazards is associated with the same characteristics that determine vulnerability in everyday life, such as income, ethnicity, or age. However, the analysis found little evidence for a direct link between socio-economic factors and social vulnerability. Much more important was the issue of social isolation, which was found to be a main direct driver of vulnerability. Social isolation is particularly widespread among certain parts of the population (e.g. elderly people living alone, so-called sans papiers), whose situations may be exacerbated by additional socio-economic factors. In the context of disaster management, these factors are becoming increasingly relevant, as Zürich is being affected by several large-scale d