Holistic Multidimensional Vulnerability Assessment: An empirical investigation on rural communities of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, Northern Pakistan

Abstract The rural communities in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region live in a multi-hazard environment where climate change has exacerbated the frequency of extreme weather events and caused huge social and economic losses. Vulnerability assessment has emerged to understand various dimensions and effects of natural hazards on human settlements. This study has proposed a modified multidimensional vulnerability assessment method. Relevant indicators have been quantified through indices under six dimensions of vulnerability, i.e., social, economic, physical, institutional, attitudinal, and gender. This study introduces ‘gender’ as a sixth non-static dimension of vulnerability. The model was operationalized for three rural communities from the Hunza-Nagar districts in the Pakistani Hindu Kush Himalayan Region. The results revealed that communities are highly vulnerable to natural hazards in all dimensions. Low economic status, inadequate infrastructure, poor risk perception, and gender-exclusive plans are responsible for high vulnerabilities. Overall, this study contributes to an updated methodology, which can be implemented in other hazard-prone mountain communities at national and regional levels.