Replicating and Adapting an Index of Social Vulnerability to a New Context: A Comparison Study for Norway

In this article, we first replicate and then adapt an existing index of social vulnerability to hazard developed for the United States to a non-U.S. context. We construct indexes for Norwegian municipalities, describe the adjustment process, and compare the replicated and adapted assessments. Our results indicate only a moderate correlation between the replicated and adapted vulnerability indexes and for several municipalities the difference between the indexes is considerable. This demonstrates that context matters and that indexes of vulnerability need to be adapted rather than replicated. To facilitate such adaption processes, we identify three types of accommodation: conceptual, technical, and geographic.