Constructing a social vulnerability index for flooding: insights from a municipality in Sweden | SEI

This research paper describes the development and testing of a social vulnerability index for flooding at a sub-municipal level in Sweden, utilizing a combined bottom-up and top-down approach to identify spatial injustices and inform equitable flood risk reduction strategies.

• The authors developed a social vulnerability index using a combined bottom-up and top-down approach, incorporating the impact chain method from the Vulnerability Sourcebook and participatory methods—including three workshops, interviews, and informal exchanges—to identify indicators. These indicators were aggregated via exploratory factor analysis to map social vulnerability scores.
• The resulting social vulnerability index is more effective at capturing municipal nuances than national-level approaches. The analysis revealed an uneven spatial distribution of social vulnerability that aligns with the municipality's general patterns of income segregation, noting that several areas with low social vulnerability scores face high flood exposure.
• The social vulnerability index is intended to assist municipalities in creating just and equitable flood risk reduction interventions by providing data for civil protection, investment strategies, and policymaking.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2023). Constructing a social vulnerability index for flooding: insights from a municipality in Sweden | SEI. https://www.sei.org/publications/social-vulnerability-index-flooding/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Constructing a social vulnerability index for flooding: insights from a municipality in Sweden | SEI. 2023. https://www.sei.org/publications/social-vulnerability-index-flooding/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Constructing a social vulnerability index for flooding: insights from a municipality in Sweden | SEI |date=29 May 2023 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/social-vulnerability-index-flooding/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2023constructing, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Constructing a social vulnerability index for flooding: insights from a municipality in Sweden | SEI}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/social-vulnerability-index-flooding/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }