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The main purpose of this paper is to document the challenges within spatial risk and vulnerability assessments in order to instigate an open discussion about opportunities for improvements in approaches to disaster risk. This descriptive paper identifies challenges to quality and acceptance and is based on a case study of a social vulnerability index of river floods in Germany. The findings suggest the existence of a vast range of challenges, most of which are typical for many spatial vulnerability assessments. Some of these challenges are obvious while others, such as the stigmatisation of ‘the vulnerable’ in vulnerability maps, are probably less often the subject of debate in the context of quantitative assessments. The discussion of challenges regarding data, methodology, concept and evaluation of vulnerability assessment may help similar interdisciplinary projects in identifying potential gaps and …