Community-Based Flood Vulnerability Index for Urban Flooding: Understanding Social Vulnerabilities and Risks

Abstract

According to the World Risk Report released by the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security, the Philippines is ranked third globally in terms of disaster risk. One of those disaster risks is flooding which poses a serious challenge to development and the lives of the people. Public health risks and social vulnerability are usually overlooked and undermined and only very little attention is given. Thus, this study focuses on these aspects. This study was an exploratory step towards assessing vulnerability particularly to fluvial flooding, it was a rapid assessment of the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) of the community people including their socio-demographic profile, physical environment, exposure to microorganisms such as E.coli, Liptospirosis and the Dengue Fever mosquito, and local indicators were formulated and developed. These are important factors to be assessed in order to establish correlations and relationships in understanding social vulnerabilities and its indicators which can be incorporated in the hydroinformatics. The survey was done from March 2013 to July 2013. A total of 361 household respondents from the 12 communities and 30 respondents from the LGU and NGO were surveyed. Results of the study revealed an overall Flood Vulnerability Index (FVI) of 39.34 %. Barangay Tabuc-tubig (53.39 %) topping from all the 12 communities surveyed using the local indicators of the five major components namely; hydro-climatic, social, economic, socio-behavioral and the politico-administrative component. This study also reveals the most vulnerable communities from each of those 5 major components surveyed. It is interesting to note that Flood Vulnerability Index remains low in spite that the exposure indicators are high. The low FVI can be attributed to the community’s high resilience in its coping and adaptation strategies. In this study, the Flood Vulnerability Index is significantly sensitive to susceptibility and flood resilience variables.