Abstract
Climate change has resulted in more extreme weather events in coastal cities, and understanding how daily life is impacted is crucial to make effective adaptation measures. Using Macau as a testbed, this research describes examines the impacts of flooding caused by storm surges on residents’ daily travel and proposes measures to ameliorate disaster risks. Spatial extents of urban floods were modelled through inundation simulations using geographical information data. An analysis of the travel distance increases from residents’ homes to common types of destinations was performed both under normal conditions and during flood events in GIS (Geographic Information System) to assess the influence of urban flooding on residents’ daily travel. The results show that one third of the land is threatened by floods in Macau. People’s average travel distance increases as the warning levels escalate, and travel distance is predicted to rise by up to 64.5%. Based on the findings, the study proposes mitigation strategies to minimize urban flooding’s impacts. It suggests that the area more densely populated is not necessarily the one requiring the deployment of preventative measures with the highest priority, as a traffic analysis is identified as the key area which demands disaster prevention measures.
Highlights
Changes in global climate and atmospheric circulation frequently cause extreme weather events, such as typhoons, rainstorms, and drought [1], with the resulting harmful effects often exacerbated in cities with high urbanization rates [2]
The affected areas simulated under SSW-2 storm surge flood would cover 1,076,183.78 m2 (1.076 km2 ), which accounts for 3.2% of the total land in Macau (Figure 4c)
The simulation results revealed that up to one third of the land is threatened by floods under different storm surge warnings, and the travel distances between residential areas and common destinations increase by up to
Summary
Changes in global climate and atmospheric circulation frequently cause extreme weather events, such as typhoons, rainstorms, and drought [1], with the resulting harmful effects often exacerbated in cities with high urbanization rates [2]. Research data from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters indicate that natural disasters related to climate change in 2016 caused global economic losses of about USD 66.5 billion, and China ranked second with total losses of about USD 13.6 billion [3]. About 40 million people (0.6% of the global population or one-tenth of the total population of port cities) are currently exposed to a 1 in 100 year coastal flood event [4].
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