Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Using GIS and Fuzzy AHP on an Indicator-Based Approach

Abstract

This study aims at integrating GIS method and fuzzy AHP to evaluate the impact of climate change under the vulnerability concept. The results of this empirical study in Da Nang city have significant scientific contribution to the generation of comprehensive indicators for assessing the vulnerability in coastal cities in Central region of Vietnam. The approach of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in climate change vulnerability assessment has been examined considering three main components of vulnerability which are exposure to hazards, local sensitivity and adaptive capacity. GIS-based approach was applied to generate a set of indicators and the fuzzy AHP method was investigated for determination of the weighted scheme for parameters included in the climate vulnerability assessment. The study results indicate that the coastal districts including Son Tra and Ngu Hanh Son districts are most vulnerable to climate change due to high exposure, high sensitivity and limited adaptive capacity. On the contrary, the district with high level of adaptive capacity such as Hai Chau district is usually ranged in low level of vulnerability. The results confirm the importance of enhancing adaptive capacity in responding to the impact of climate change.