Abstract
Rapid urbanization in China has strengthened the connection and cooperation among cities and has also led urban residents to be more vulnerable in adverse environmental conditions. Vulnerability research has been an important foundation in urban risk management. To make cities safe and resilient, it is also necessary to integrate the connection among cities into a vulnerability assessment. Therefore, this paper proposed a new conceptual framework for urban social vulnerability assessment based on network theory, where a new dimension of social vulnerability (connectivity) was added into the framework. Using attribute data, the traditional social vulnerability index of a city (SVInode) was calculated via the projection pursuit cluster (PPC) model. With the relational data retrieved from the Baidu search index, a new dimension (connectivity) of social vulnerability (SVIconnectivity) was evaluated. Finally, an integrated social vulnerability index (SVIurban) was measured combined with SVInode and SVIconnectivity. This method was applied in the Yangtze River Delta region of China, where the top three high values of SVInode belonged to the cities of Taizhou (Z), Jiaxing, and Huzhou. The three lowest cities were Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Shanghai. For SVIurban, the social vulnerability of cities in different hierarchies behaved differently. For Hierarchies 2 and 3, when compared to SVInode, the SVIurban was significantly reduced. However, the variation between SVInode and SVIurban in Hierarchy 4 was slight. Furthermore, an increase for the city of Taizhou (J) in its social vulnerability was achieved after connecting to the network. Huzhou, in Hierarchy 5, increased its social vulnerability the most when adding connectivity in the social vulnerability assessment. Based on the results of our case study, a conclusion was drawn that network connectivity had an influence on social vulnerability. However, when connectivity was strong enough, it could help cities to mitigate their traditional social vulnerability, whereas a loose connection in the network aggregated their traditional social vulnerability. Hence, the latter should be emphasized in future urban risk management.
Highlights
In 1800, only approximately 2% of the world’s population lived in cities, whereas today, about 54% of the world’s population reside in cities, which is projected to rise to over 67% by 2050 [1,2]
Based on the results of our case study, a conclusion was drawn that network connectivity influenced social vulnerability
Based on the theory of city networks, this paper proposed a new conceptual framework to evaluate social vulnerability in city agglomerations
Summary
In 1800, only approximately 2% of the world’s population lived in cities, whereas today, about 54% of the world’s population reside in cities, which is projected to rise to over 67% by 2050 [1,2] Most of these individuals live in the developing world, in places such as China. Shanghai has become the eighth largest city (with a population of 22.7 million people), Beijing is ranked as the eleventh largest in the world (with a population of 20.4 million), and Guangzhou-Foshan is the thirteenth largest city (with a population of 18.8 million) Such rapid urbanization has and will continue to strengthen the connection and cooperation among cities. Integrating the connections between cities into a vulnerability assessment is extremely essential in making cities safe and resilient in the context of rapid urbanization
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