Snow Vulnerability Analysis for Administrative Districts in South Korea

Abstract

Extreme weather events, such as summer typhoons, heavy rain, cold weather, and heavy snow, are on the rise. Heavy rain, typhoons, and heavy snow are the main natural disasters that cause severe damage in South Korea. Recently, there has been an increase in the direct and indirect damages caused by heavy snow. However, studies on heavy snow damage are scarce; research on major natural disasters in Korea has generally focused on heavy rain and typhoons, which occur in the summer. In this study, 229 cities and districts vulnerable to snow damage were analyzed. The pressure-state-response structure was used for the vulnerability analysis, and the factors influencing heavy snow damage were classified as pressure, state, and response index. Entropy theory, which is easy to apply and excludes subjective judgment, was used to calculate the weight of each factor. As a result, the ranking of areas vulnerable to heavy snow damage was compiled. These results demonstrate the potential for the implementation of the heavy snow disaster prevention project. Keywords: Entropy, Heavy Snow Damage, PSR, Snow Vulnerability Index