The study aims to define criteria and indicators to estimate and measure vulnerability at the local level to tsunamis in selected municipalities in Sri Lanka, as well as identifying various vulnerabilities, coping capacities and potential intervention tools. Moreover, the study focuses on the advantage and disadvantage of different techniques to measure vulnerability. In this context four different methodologies and data sources were analysed. These included for example remote sensing to estimate the vulnerability of the built environment and a questionnaire-based survey to assess major characteristics of the vulnerability of different social groups.

The results provide important conclusions, recommendations and incentives for a more sustainable reconstruction of the cities of Galle and Batticaloa, and for coastal communities in general. Furthermore, they give insights into how to identify and measure susceptibility, and the unusual difficulties different types of household have had in trying to recover. This analysis could be used in the future to define more precisely those households which need aid the most. The study also ascertains the most vulnerable groups, such as women, young children and the elderly, which should be treated with precedence.

Finally, conclusions and recommendations are formulated which provide an important contribution to future disaster management, reconstruction and sustainable development of coastal communities in Sri Lanka. The findings and recommendations were discussed with country representatives, delegates and practitioners in various fields of disaster reduction and development, for example within a larger workshop in Colombo/Sri Lanka and in Bangkok at an international conference.

excerpt from the introduction by Jörn Birkmann