**3.2.3 Searching and selecting literatures**

In this study, peer-reviewed scientific articles including place-based vulnerability case studies and theoretical and conceptual discussion papers are included. The literature search was undertaken in two steps:

Here in this study, the meta-analysis is practicalized in 6 steps: 1) formulating the research questions, 2) choosing an appropriate conceptual framework, 3) developing a literature search strategy, 4) collecting case studies, 5) coding information from individual case studies, 5) formulating and describing the object under investigation, and 6) synthesizing

In order to conduct a meta-analysis it is necessary to define a clear outcome of vulnerability as a basis of the analysis and to narrow down the large volume of research that has been

In some sense, the choice of the conceptual framework is the most important phase beside the formulating of research problems. Choosing which framework indicates the connotations, scales, and philosophy of the concepts and relative terms and definitions. Therefore, the conceptual framework in this analysis should reflect the complex interactions

Additionally, the choice of conceptual framework impacts the following process of metaanalysis. Though the causes to vulnerability exist no matter what methodology is chosen, the organization and categorization of the information would be different. Further, the

The Turner et al. (2003) framework takes the concerned coupled social environmental system in which vulnerability resides as the core system, with consideration of functions from broader social and biophysical conditions' interactions. With the three elements of exposure, sensitivity and resilience, this framework presents the complexity and the multi-

In this study, peer-reviewed scientific articles including place-based vulnerability case studies and theoretical and conceptual discussion papers are included. The literature search

undertaken in this area to-date. In this study, the research questions are:

1. What are the key factors contributing to vulnerability? And 2. What is the current status of research in the vulnerability field?

in the coupled social environmental vulnerability system.

presentation of the analysis results would be different.

**3.2.3 Searching and selecting literatures** 

was undertaken in two steps:

scale characteristics in the system(Turner, Kasperson et al. 2003).

**3.2 Undertaking meta-analysis: Case in research of vulnerability to coastal hazards**  Although the meta-analysis has developed remarkably, there are however few uses of this methodology in the field of natural hazard research. Harremoes, Gee et al. (2001) studied 14 "man-made" disaster cases and investigated the reasons behind ineffective early warnings. The study demonstrated that in most cases information warning of the potential harm was available at an early stage, but that due to the complexity of the situation, lack of awareness, and the politically high stakes of the decision-making process, many warnings were not implemented effectively or not implemented at all. Other typical researches in environmentrelated and vulnerability researches are those from Geist and Lambin (2004) on the desertification in tropical areas and from Misselhorn (2005) on the vulnerability to food

security in Africa (Geist and Lambin 2004; Misselhorn 2005).

the data collected from individual case studies.

**3.2.1 Formulating research questions** 

**3.2.2 Choosing conceptual framework** 


In order to minimise the likelihood of excluding important information or views (Sherwood 1999), a thorough and comprehensive literature search was undertaken. This required an appropriate and efficient search strategy. In this study we chose to limit our search to coastal hazards defined by Adger, Hughes et al. (2005): coastal floods (storm surges), tsunamis, tidal waves, hurricanes and marine-related infectious diseases (Adger, Hughes et al. 2005). Geographically, we limited our search to eight East and Southeast Asia countries: Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, and Indonesia.

Considering the availability and authenticity, the following electronic databases were used as mining places: JSTOR (www.jstor.org), Sciencedirect (www.sciencedirect.com), Springerlink (www.springerlink.com), Synergy (www.blackwell-synergy.com), Google (http://scholar.google.com), and Emerald (www.emeraldinsight.com).

For those databases that allowed searches in several languages, the search was limited to documents in English. The time period searched was from 1970 to March 2006. The key words are grouped in three kinds: type of hazards, region and aspects of hazards vulnerability. Through combining the key words, the searching strategy is set up as shown in Table 1.

The collected literatures are sifted further to insure all the articles are related to the aims of this study. Firstly the articles are browsed by titles, but the relevance of a qualitative study is often not clear from its title alone. Second round of sifting is on abstracts. But as (Evans 2002) has noted, the abstracts of qualitative studies vary considerable in the contents, and some are without addressing the research methods used. If a study could not be determined whether should be included in the meta-analysis, a full text reading is required as the last way.
