Evaluación de la vulnerabilidad social ante amenazas naturales en Manzanillo (Colima). Un aporte de método

One of the main features of our time is the frequent occurrence of the so-called “natural disasters”, however, both the specialized literature as well as reality demonstrates, such disasters are truly defined by economic, social, political and institutional hardships, which promote high exposures and vulnerabilities that tragically produce significant human and material losses. This paper shows the results of a Principal Component Analysis (pca) applied to a set of variables measured directly in field in the port city of Manzanillo that allowed the construction of a composite indicator that measures the different levels of the inhabitants' social vulnerability to hazards by earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and extreme hydro-meteorological events. The conclusions of this work, concordant with those developed at the international and local levels, validate the application of such methodologies for the analysis and synthesis of the variables that define social vulnerability to natural hazards.