Assessment of the Social Vulnerability in the Climate Change Induced - Flood Risk : Focused on the City of Incheon

Abstract

The aim of this study is to suggest the social vulnerability index for reflecting social properties of a region, such as population and economy, in vulnerability assessment. For such a research objective, this study composed the assessment index with 'social vulnerability' and 'physical vulnerability'. Also, this study composed the social vulnerability with 'population vulnerability index', 'economic vulnerability index' and 'information vulnerability index' while composing the physical vulnerability with 'flood-risk index', and then selected proxy variables. In addition, this study determined the weight using an entropy weight measurement as an objective weight measurement. The vulnerability assessment result is as follows: First, the vulnerable areas were concentrated around the inner harbours and some rivers of Incheon. Second, the areas vulnerable to the flood caused by climate change were found to be highly vulnerable socially as well as physically. Third, results of assessment were different according to the social properties of an areas despite the identical level of flood risk. The resultant implications are following. First, there is the necessity of having to put emphasis on social vulnerability of an area from the perspective of adaptation to climate change. Second, there is the necessity of having to arrange effective social and physical adaptation strategy based on the results of vulnerability