What Are Vulnerability Maps For?

The reference to vulnerability management can make it appear indirectly in the territories, but it does not make it easier to measure or map. This chapter aims to understand the gaps between what is expected from vulnerability maps (a contribution to risk reduction) and what is observed (at best aesthetic tools). Like estimation methods, vulnerability maps must strike a balance between providing insight into multidimensional processes and potential situations, and territorializing and transmitting the main elements. Risk and disaster reduction efforts are increasingly focusing on the use of quantitative indicators and vulnerability maps to identify vulnerable people, groups and territories, to prioritize actions and allocate resources. Vulnerability mapping is as difficult to produce as it is to handle because it should be multi-hazard, multi-dimensional and evolutionary, while presenting choices that should be made explicit.