scholarly journals Social Vulnerability Assessment for Flood Risk Analysis

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Tascón-González ◽  
Montserrat Ferrer-Julià ◽  
Maurici Ruiz ◽  
Eduardo García-Meléndez
Keyword(s):  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Vulnerability Index ◽  
Social Vulnerability Index ◽  
Coping Capacity ◽  
High Exposure ◽  
Public Data ◽  
Social Vulnerability Assessment

This paper proposes a methodology for the analysis of social vulnerability to floods based on the integration and weighting of a range of exposure and resistance (coping capacity) indicators. It focuses on the selection and characteristics of each proposed indicator and the integration procedure based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) on a large scale. The majority of data used for the calculation of the indicators comes from open public data sources, which allows the replicability of the method in any area where the same data are available. To demonstrate the feasibility of the method, a study case is presented. The flood social vulnerability assessment focuses on the municipality of Ponferrada (Spain), a medium-sized town that has high exposure to floods due to potential breakage of the dam located upstream. A detailed mapping of the social vulnerability index is generated at the urban parcel scale, which shows an affected population of 34,941 inhabitants. The capability of working with such detailed units of analysis for an entire medium-sized town provides a valuable tool to support flood risk planning and management.

Vulnerability Assessment during Mass Evacuation: Integrated Microsimulation-Based Evacuation Modeling Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 2673 (10) ◽  
pp. 225-238
Author(s):  
MD Jahedul Alam ◽  
Muhammad Ahsanul Habib
Keyword(s):  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Risk Model ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Modeling Approach ◽  
Systems Model

This study develops an integrated microsimulation-based evacuation model that performs a vulnerability assessment of the Halifax Peninsula, Canada during an evacuation. The proposed framework of vulnerability assessment accounts for long-term changes in neighborhood composition in relation to socio-demographic characteristics, residential locations, and vehicle ownership. The results of a large-scale urban systems model and a flood risk model are used to inform the vulnerability assessment. The urban systems model encapsulates long-term household decisions and life stage transitions in measuring social vulnerability. The flood risk model provides information on flood severity and finer network disruptions. In addition, a dynamic traffic assignment-based microsimulation model is developed to assess mobility vulnerability during an evacuation. One of the key contributions of this study is that it utilizes a Bayesian Belief Network modeling approach for vulnerability assessment, while addressing uncertainty and causal relationships between different elements of vulnerability. The results suggest that the Peninsula zones are at a relatively higher risk from a mobility point of view. A sensitivity analysis reveals that clearance time has been found to be the key determinant of the mobility vulnerability during an evacuation. “Presence of female” and “presence of seniors” are found as the two most significant contributors of social vulnerability. Several peripheral zones are at a higher risk because of their proximity to the flood source. The proposed research will help emergency professionals and engineers to develop effective evacuation plans in relation to vulnerable areas.

scholarly journals Study of Integrated Social Vulnerability Index SoVIint of Hilly Region of Uttarakhand, India

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dilip Kumar ◽  
Rajib Kumar Bhattacharjya
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Flash Flood ◽  
Vulnerability Index ◽  
Social Vulnerability Index ◽  
Vulnerability Factor ◽  
Hilly Region ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe hilly regions of India have suffered many disasters, both natural and anthropogenic. In the hilly state like Uttarakhand, the hazards like flash flood, forest fires, and landslide affect the community at the large scale. These hazards cause severe physical injuries, loss of life, and at large scale property damage. To understand the impact of such natural hazards, we need to examine vulnerability of the society, so that we can define vulnerability as the status of a community to prevent, mitigate, prepare for or respond to a natural and a man-made hazard. The absence of coping strategies, which is also known as resilience, has altered the vulnerability of a community. Thus, vulnerability index of a community has to be calculated considering physical, social, economic and environmental factors associated with the community. This research paper tries to find out an integrated social vulnerability factor. The proposed integrated social vulnerability factor is determined by considering various factors, such as physical, social, economic, and environmental. All these factors increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards. Poverty, occupation, child population, literacy rate, disability, marginalization, and inequities in wealth distribution of a society or community will also change the social vulnerability. Proposed Integrated social vulnerability index for the hilly terrain of Uttarakhand incorporated local technical knowledge insight and skills, so that local people and local administration are able to identify problems and can offer a solution to resist future emergencies i.e. the proposed social vulnerability indicator will support state, local, and traditional disaster management officials to determine areas of the most sensitive populations and better mitigation operation can be performed in case of disaster.

Place-Based Assessment of Intersection of Biophysical and Social Vulnerability to Flooding in Accra, Ghana

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
Dacosta Aboagye ◽  
Elvis Attakora-Amaniampong ◽  
Ebenezer Owusu-Sekyere
Keyword(s):  
Flood Risk ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Vulnerability Index ◽  
Flood Hazards ◽  
Social Vulnerability Index ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Resilient Communities ◽  
Index Mapping ◽  
Hazards Of Place

The relationship between flood hazards and social vulnerability is firmly on the intellectual agenda of geographers in Ghana. In an attempt to theorize and empirically examine this relationship, scholars have commonly followed a one-sided methodological strand. In this article, a triple-helix approach that relies on the application of social vulnerability index; mapping potential flood hazard zones; and examining degree of coincidence between flood hazards and social vulnerability, is used. Situating the analysis within Hazards-of-Place Model of Vulnerability, the study identifies spatial disparities in biophysical and social vulnerability within the City. It emerged that communities in the Ashiedu Keteke sub-metro were the most vulnerable based on the hazards-of-place model. Significantly, while flood risk awareness was very high among community members, the perception of flood risk management was poor. The study argues that understanding place-based vulnerability is crucial in mitigating the effect of hazards and building resilient communities.

scholarly journals Leveraging Hazard, Exposure, and Social Vulnerability Data to Assess Flood Risk to Indigenous Communities in Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liton Chakraborty ◽  
Jason Thistlethwaite ◽  
Andrea Minano ◽  
Daniel Henstra ◽  
Daniel Scott
Keyword(s):  
Flood Risk ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Vulnerability Index ◽  
Social Vulnerability Index ◽  
National Scale ◽  
Socioeconomic Vulnerability ◽  
Flood Exposure ◽  
Residential Properties

AbstractThis study integrates novel data on 100-year flood hazard extents, exposure of residential properties, and place-based social vulnerability to comprehensively assess and compare flood risk between Indigenous communities living on 985 reserve lands and other Canadian communities across 3701 census subdivisions. National-scale exposure of residential properties to fluvial, pluvial, and coastal flooding was estimated at the 100-year return period. A social vulnerability index (SVI) was developed and included 49 variables from the national census that represent demographic, social, economic, cultural, and infrastructure/community indicators of vulnerability. Geographic information system-based bivariate choropleth mapping of the composite SVI scores and of flood exposure of residential properties and population was completed to assess the spatial variation of flood risk. We found that about 81% of the 985 Indigenous land reserves had some flood exposure that impacted either population or residential properties. Our analysis indicates that residential property-level flood exposure is similar between non-Indigenous and Indigenous communities, but socioeconomic vulnerability is higher on reserve lands, which confirms that the overall risk of Indigenous communities is higher. Findings suggest the need for more local verification of flood risk in Indigenous communities to address uncertainty in national scale analysis.

scholarly journals Social Vulnerability across the Great Lakes Basin: A County-Level Comparative and Spatial Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7274
Author(s):  
Joshua T. Fergen ◽  
Ryan D. Bergstrom
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Spatial Patterns ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Vulnerability Index ◽  
Social Vulnerability Index ◽  
Great Lakes Basin ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Regional Patterns ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Social Vulnerabilities

Social vulnerability refers to how social positions affect the ability to access resources during a disaster or disturbance, but there is limited empirical examination of its spatial patterns in the Great Lakes Basin (GLB) region of North America. In this study, we map four themes of social vulnerability for the GLB by using the Center for Disease Control’s Social Vulnerability Index (CDC SVI) for every county in the basin and compare mean scores for each sub-basin to assess inter-basin differences. Additionally, we map LISA results to identify clusters of high and low social vulnerability along with the outliers across the region. Results show the spatial patterns depend on the social vulnerability theme selected, with some overlapping clusters of high vulnerability existing in Northern and Central Michigan, and clusters of low vulnerability in Eastern Wisconsin along with outliers across the basins. Differences in these patterns also indicate the existence of an urban–rural dimension to the variance in social vulnerabilities measured in this study. Understanding regional patterns of social vulnerability help identify the most vulnerable people, and this paper presents a framework for policymakers and researchers to address the unique social vulnerabilities across heterogeneous regions.

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