A Preliminary Study of Flood Risk Vulnerability in Urban Areas: Spatial and Nonspatial Factors in Tainan
Author: Keng-ming Hsu
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
Over the past few years, the social dimension has been increasingly emphasized when discussing the vulnerability of natural disasters. In fact, it’s been found that cities with different social vulnerabilities will also have different consequences when faced with natural disasters. Additionally, cities with various levels of social resilience will produce different responses to natural disasters.
This being the case, what is the current situation of the various groups that are socially vulnerable, and of the areas that face potential flooding in Tainan? We aim to find out if high risk communities in Tainan that are also part of community-based flood risk management programs have the same responses as the aforementioned areas.
In this study, we first analyze the areas where vulnerable groups overlap with flood potential in Tainan. We use GIS and integrative thinking in order to define the high risk areas, and then we compare them using spatial distribution of the self-precaution communities. Finally, the spatial distribution of these self-precaution communities is explored further and the nonspatial factors are checked against the findings of the research and in-depth interviews.