Harman Ajiwibowo
Segara Anakan is the biggest estuary system in south coast of Java Island. There are more than three rivers discharging into Segara Anakan waters. Citanduy River is contributing the biggest freshwater discharge. The main problem of Segara Anakan is salinity intrusion. During the dry season, Segara Anakan’s water becomes sea water, on contrary the salinity reaches zero. Considering the land use in the vicinity of Segara Anakan Estuary, fishing and farming are the main activity of dweller. Thus, both of wet and dry season, there would be hazard for farmers or fishers. Vulnerability concept and vulnerability assessment to natural hazards are not new knowledge. But, further research is still needed, particularly in case of slow-onset hazards, such as salinity intrusion. In the last two decades, a large number of vulnerability studies were carried out intensively around the world covering different types of hazards and risk contexts such as flood, tsunami, typhoon, drought, climate change, pollution, poverty, food insecurity and famine, human insecurity, etc; at various scales from global to community and household level; using several different methods and data sources, for example qualitative and/or quantitative approaches, primary and/or secondary data. Despite the remarkable achievements from high quality vulnerability research, current knowledge on this area is still limited.