Abstract
Assessing and measuring urban vulnerability resilience is a challenging task if the right type of information is not readily available. In this context, remote sensing and Earth Observation (EO) approaches can help to monitor damages and local conditions before and after extreme weather events, such as flooding. Recently, the increasing availability of Google Street View (GSV) coverage offers additional potential ways to assess the vulnerability and resilience to such events. GSV is available at no cost, is easy to use, and is available for an increasing number of locations. This exploratory research focuses on the use of GSV and EO data to assess exposure, sensitivity, and adaptation to flooding in urban areas in the cities of Belem and Rio Branco in the Amazon region of Brazil. We present a Visual Indicator Framework for Resilience (VIFOR) to measure 45 indicators for these characteristics in 1 km2 sample areas in poor and richer districts in the two cities. The aim was to assess critically the extent to which GSV-derived information could be reliable in measuring the proposed indicators and how this new methodology could be used to measure vulnerability and resilience where official census data and statistics are not readily available. Our results show that variation in vulnerability and resilience between the rich and poor areas in both cities could be demonstrated through calibration of the chosen indicators using GSV-derived data, suggesting that this is a useful, complementary and cost-effective addition to census data and/or recent high resolution EO data. Furthermore, the GSV-linked approach used here may assist users who lack the technical skills to process raw EO data into usable information. The ready availability of insights on the vulnerability and resilience of diverse urban areas by straightforward remote sensing methods such as those developed here with GSV can provide valuable evidence for decisions on critical infrastructure investments in areas with low capacity to cope with flooding.
Highlights
Floods are one of the most common and severe hazards to disrupt people’s livelihoods globally [1]
In Belem, many of the businesses and houses are located near canals that are often related to poor technical maintenance of river channels, and disposal of rubbish in the canals contributes to flooding
This paper presents the novel Visual Indicator Framework for Resilience (VIFOR)
Summary
Floods are one of the most common and severe hazards to disrupt people’s livelihoods globally [1]. The effects of climate change and widespread flooding can exacerbate urban challenges and make it more difficult to tackle issues and help vulnerable communities in informal settlements [2]. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlines that climate-related risks for natural and human systems are higher for global warming of. Given that the world will further urbanize during the decade, from 56.2% in 2020 to about 60.4% by 2030 [3], these vulnerabilities are likely to intensify. Climate change can cause events such as flooding with higher frequency, intensity, and variability, affecting urban areas where density of housing is high and widespread [4,5]. Given that urban areas are expanding, along with
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