Publication

This paper argues that a recently established system in Ethiopia has advanced the science in the area of disaster risk assessment. According to the author, this system makes it possible to project the likely impact of a wide range of hazards on the livelihoods of households living in rural areas. She stresses the way that 'vulnerability' and 'coping capacity' are characterized and integrated into this system, transforming a descriptive analysis into a predictive one, and allowing analysts to solve the risk assessment equation using a new, deductive-based approach.