Population of the fringes of the Kathmandu metropolitan is increasing rapidly and population density is
even higher than metropolitan in some VDC. The construction rate of the building are sky rocketing and the
elements of the risks are increasing in both human and economic term. Thus there is urgent need of proper approach
for the vulnerability assessment in these settlements. Vulnerability assessment is a complex process; only
qualitative assessment process is adopted in this study. Rapid visual screening process and the questionnaire survey
are used for the data collection. Fifty sample building from the ward 4 of the Dhapasi have been studied.
Vulnerability assessment includes ground factors, building's physical conditions, and social (demographic and
socioeconomic) aspects of the settlement. Vulnerability of the buildings and the settlement is studied on the basis of
physical condition of the building, non-structural component, population density, housing density, age of the
buildings and the ground condition. Land use planning, infrastructure development, building permit and the
constructional trend in the Dhapasi VDC have been studied. Study shows, Dhapasi is urbanizing rapidly without
development of the infrastructure. 45% of the buildings are constructed in last 5 years and reveals that most of the
building constructed are vulnerable. From the study ill building construction, unplanned urbanization are the main
reason for increasing vulnerability in the recently urbanizing settlements.