International comparison of measures taken for vulnerable people in disaster risk management laws

This paper focuses on measures taken for vulnerable people in Disaster Risk Management (DRM) laws in Japan, the Netherlands and the United States. As DRM laws were found to lack a definition of vulnerable people, an original working definition of vulnerable people in a community was defined.DRM laws and policies with a focus on flood disasters in Japan and the USA cover some groups of potentially vulnerable people who are supported during various phases of disaster management, such as elderly, children and people with disabilities. The basic disaster law in the Netherlands mentions ‘not self-reliant people’ during the response phase, and leaves further details to the regional safety plans. All countries lack clearly defined characteristics in the laws themselves as to who may be categorized among the various groups of potentially vulnerable people. Furthermore, there is little to no anticipation of expected increases in the amounts of vulnerable people.The support for vulnerable people in DRM laws has not been quantified on a global scale, even though the Hyogo Framework for Action called for the development of measurement tools in 2005. Further research should aim at developing tools with which to quantify the support of vulnerable people in DRM laws.