Vulnerability in the context of post 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami recovery: Lessons for building more resilient coastal communities

The study synthesises 137 substantiated vulnerability insights from 40 documents, finding that 75% of identified risks emerged during the recovery phase, primarily driven by aid delivery. Key vulnerable groups include displaced people, women, and children, with new vulnerabilities manifesting as health problems in 'artificial' communities, resource conflicts among fishermen, and increased abuse of women. The authors argue that a lack of long-term planning, politicised aid, and a failure to translate gender awareness into action hinder sustainable recovery and resilience building.

• A meta-analysis of 382 documents revealed a significant lack of primary data and substantiated vulnerability arguments in the tsunami recovery literature; only 40 documents contained actual substantiated vulnerability insights focusing on vulnerable groups.
• The most vulnerable groups identified in the synthesis are displaced people, women, children, families, farmers, and victims from other emergencies.
• The majority of documented vulnerabilities emerged during the recovery process rather than from the disaster itself, with aid delivery identified as the primary causal factor.
• Displaced people experienced emerging health risks primarily due to the conditions of 'artificial' communities, where poor quality shelters and inadequate water and sanitation facilities facilitated the spread of communicable diseases.
• Aid delivery in coastal communities exacerbated pre-existing resource conflicts and community tensions, specifically through the inequitable distribution of boats and fishing gear and contested coastal zone policies.
• Women faced increased vulnerability to violence and harassment in transitory camps due to the dismantling of protective mechanisms and poor facility design, while a general failure to translate gender awareness into action perpetuated marginalisation.
• The recovery community's capacity to build resilience is hampered by a highly politicised environment where aid is treated as a resource for competing political interests and accountability to donors is prioritised over collective learning.
• Large-scale disaster risk reduction strategies, such as the Indian Ocean Early Warning System, often lack links to community experience and are designed as one-way information flows, bypassing the deeper causes of social vulnerability.

APA

R.K.Larsen, Miller, F., & Thomalla, F. (2008). Vulnerability in the context of post 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami recovery: Lessons for building more resilient coastal communities. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-WorkingPaper-Larsen-VulnerabilityPost2004IndianOceanTsunamiRecovery-2008.pdf

Chicago

R.K.Larsen, F. Miller, and F. Thomalla. Vulnerability in the context of post 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami recovery: Lessons for building more resilient coastal communities. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2008. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-WorkingPaper-Larsen-VulnerabilityPost2004IndianOceanTsunamiRecovery-2008.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=R.K.Larsen |last2=Miller |first2=F. |last3=Thomalla |first3=F. |title=Vulnerability in the context of post 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami recovery: Lessons for building more resilient coastal communities |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=February 2008 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-WorkingPaper-Larsen-VulnerabilityPost2004IndianOceanTsunamiRecovery-2008.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rklarsen2008vulnerability, author = {R.K.Larsen and Miller, F. and Thomalla, F.}, title = {{Vulnerability in the context of post 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami recovery: Lessons for building more resilient coastal communities}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2008}, month = feb, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-WorkingPaper-Larsen-VulnerabilityPost2004IndianOceanTsunamiRecovery-2008.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }