Assessment of Community Vulnerability to Different Types of Urban Floods: A Case for Lishui City, China

Quntao Yang,Rui Yao,Qiang Dai,Shuliang Zhang

doi:10.3390/su12197865

Abstract

Urban flooding is a severe and pervasive hazard caused by climate change, urbanization, and limitations of municipal drainage systems. Cities face risks from different types of floods, depending on various geographical, environmental, and hydrometeorological conditions. In response to the growing threat of urban flooding, a better understanding of urban flood vulnerability is needed. In this study, a comprehensive method was developed to evaluate the vulnerability of different types of urban floods. First, a coupled urban flood model was built to obtain the extent of influence of various flood scenarios caused by rainfall and river levee overtopping. Second, an assessment framework for urban flood vulnerability based on an indicator method was used to evaluate the vulnerability in different flood hazard scenarios. Finally, the method was applied to Lishui City, China, and the distribution and pattern of urban flood vulnerability were studied. The results highlight the spatial variability of flooding and the vulnerability distributions of different types of urban floods. Compound floods were identified to cause more severe effects in the urban areas.

Highlights

Floods, which can cause widespread social and economic damage and even threaten human life, are one of the most severe and frequent natural hazards in urban areas [1,2]
Flooding maps, which were obtained from the results of urban flood modeling, display areas affected by different types of urban floods
Urban pluvial flooding is caused by rainfall exceeding the drainage capacity of the city and always occurs in low-lying areas, whereas fluvial flooding occurs due to river levee overtopping

Summary

Introduction

Floods, which can cause widespread social and economic damage and even threaten human life, are one of the most severe and frequent natural hazards in urban areas [1,2]. Many cities and communities have tried to mitigate the effects of urban flooding through structural measures (e.g., increasing urban drainage capacity and building dams) and non-structural measures (e.g., enhancing flood risk awareness) [7,8,9]. Both approaches rely on the knowledge and resources of multiple sectors and communities in terms of risk reduction strategies, experiences, and lessons; knowledge sharing can be especially valuable among communities with similar vulnerability characteristics [10]. Vulnerability assessment has become an essential tool for communities to cope with the adverse effects of urban flooding

Results

Discussion

Conclusion