Livelihood Vulnerability Index

The Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) is a composite-indicator method for assessing the vulnerability of households and communities to climate variability and change, developed by Micah Hahn, Anne Riederer and Stanley Foster in a 2009 case study in Mozambique. It is built from household survey data organized into major components — typically socio-demographic profile, livelihood strategies, social networks, health, food, water, and exposure to natural disasters and climate variability — each composed of standardized sub-indicators. These are normalized to a common scale, averaged into sub-components and weighted major components, and aggregated into an overall index. A companion formulation, the LVI-IPCC, reorganizes the same indicators into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's contributing factors of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, offering a pragmatic, data-driven way to compare vulnerability across places and to target adaptation.