Islam, M. S., Kuwayama, Y., Entekhabi, D., Turner, K. M., Lu, C., Castillo, F. M., ... & Wood, D. (2026). A subnational social vulnerability index for use in drought decision support systems. Environmental Science & Policy, 178, 104349.

Abstract

Angola is highly vulnerable to climate hazards and associated shocks and has experienced profound impacts from prolonged drought events. Effective policy response to drought requires a set of metrics to measure multiple dimensions of social vulnerability and compare the relative vulnerability of one region to that of another. In this paper, we present Social Vulnerability Indices (SVIs) focused on droughts that serve as an input to a larger drought decision support system. The SVIs are informed by a variety of data sources, including satellite Earth observations, demographic and health surveys, and national census data, and are calculated using two different weighting schemes. Our SVIs reveal widespread vulnerability, and significant variation in the degree of vulnerability, across Angolan municipalities. The most vulnerable municipalities in Angola include Belize, Belas and Calandula, while the least vulnerable are Cuito, Luanda and Longonjo. Results also suggest that the most and least vulnerable municipalities are not clustered, underscoring the importance of assessing vulnerability at the municipal level rather than the provincial level.