Spatial Assessment of Damage Vulnerability to Storms Based on the Analysis of Historical Damage Cost Data in the Korean Peninsula

Hyun Il Choi

doi:10.3390/su11216051

Abstract

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports, climate variability and changes increase the possibility of extreme weather events causing climate-related hazards and the risk of natural disasters. A storm is one of the most common and serious natural hazards that pose significant human and economic damage costs worldwide. The Korean Peninsula is also at persistent risk of hydro-meteorological disasters induced by rainstorms and typhoons due to geomorphological features and climate change impacts. This study has, therefore, proposed the damage vulnerability index for a spatial assessment of the damage vulnerability to storms, based on the IPCC’s vulnerability assessment concept. The damage vulnerability index is aggregated from the potential indicator for the potential damage targets, estimated by the population and major facility densities, and the risk indicator for the expected damage risk, estimated by the risk analysis for integrating both frequency and severity of human and economic damage cost records. The damage vulnerability index can assess regions vulnerable to the disaster damage induced by rainstorms, typhoons, and both, respectively, over the 231 administrative districts in the Republic of Korea. It is expected that the proposed damage vulnerability index can provide realistic and practical information on sustainable damage mitigation plans for the nationwide administrative districts against storm-induced disasters.

Highlights

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports [1,2,3] have indicated that climate variability and changes lead to an increase in frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme events, which can cause more severe climate-related hazards increasing the risk of natural disasters
The risk indicator is measured by an expected value for integrating both frequency and severity of the human and economic damage costs, which can provide a better interpretation of the risk indicator outcomes and reduce the nature of uncertainty in the proxy variables being used
Most vulnerability assessment studies tend to include a somewhat excessive number of the uncertainty-incorporated variables to account for a variety of potential factors associated with vulnerability

Summary

Introduction

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports [1,2,3] have indicated that climate variability and changes lead to an increase in frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme events, which can cause more severe climate-related hazards increasing the risk of natural disasters. The Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) [5] recorded that storm and flood disasters accounted for 71.6% of all types of natural disasters in the last two decades between 1998 and 2017. According to the EM-DAT [5] data, storms and floods affected a large number of people about 2.7 billion (61% of the total affected people from natural disasters), and they were reported as major types of natural disasters with economic losses of about US$1986 billion (69% of the total economic losses from natural disasters) over the last two decades. In the Korean Peninsula located between the East Asian Continent and the Western

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