Urban Vulnerability Assessment Research Articles

The Role of the Spatial Network in Urban Disaster Risk Variations: Reimagining the Notion of Spatial Vulnerability at the Urban Scale

AbstractThe notion of “spatial vulnerability” is present in most disaster studies with a strong geographical connotation and accordingly is adopted at all scales, including the urban. While enabling mapping and visualizing risk patterns at macroscales, this geocentric foundation fails to capture disaster risk dynamics associated with the urban spatial network—an element that plays a significant role in the everyday and emergency functioning of cities, enabling users’ movement and interaction. Yet, urban vulnerability assessment overlooks this aspect and thus leaves urban disaster risk mechanisms partially unexplored. This study investigated the role of the network of urban public open spaces (UPOS) in the creation and progression of urban disaster risk in earthquake-prone settlements. Through a multimethod approach that integrates quantitative and qualitative methods and explores spatial configuration, planning policies, and practices of use of UPOS in everyday and emergency scenarios, our study demonstrated that UPOS configuration plays an active role in urban disaster risk. Urban public open spaces impact risk by influencing the exposure of pedestrians and their capacity for self-protection. The study further reconceptualized spatial vulnerability at the urban scale, as the fraction of vulnerability associated to the spatial network, highlighting the interplay of planning policies and spatial practices in its production and progression. Our findings make the notion of spatial vulnerability less ambiguous at the urban scale, by viewing the variable as an imbalance in capacities and exposure that generates spatially unsafe conditions. This refined conceptualization of spatial vulnerability becomes a lens for a more granular approach to urban disaster risk reduction and city planning by identifying and integrating sociospatial considerations.

Using the Socioeconomic Indicator Analysis to assess the Urban Vulnerability for Building Urban Resilience: A Case Study in Siem Reap City, Siem Reap Province

Urban climate resilience relies on several factors, but urban socioeconomics are considered as a core bloodstream for urban development and building adaptive capability to overcome urban vulnerability and climate change impacts. The socioeconomic indicators are important parameters in assessing urban resilience level on climaterelated natural and man-made disasters. This study aims to explore and address the levels of urban vulnerability and resilience in Siem Reap City, Cambodia by using variables of socioeconomic indicators. The research design of this study was made by adopting the HIGS framework (Hazard-Infrastructure-Governance-Socio-economics) on urban vulnerability assessment. Of these four key components of indicators, this study focuses only on twelve socioeconomic indicators by dividing them into three main components (demographic profile, development, and education-poverty-occupation) for assessing vulnerability and exploring how to build urban climate resilience. Data collection and research conducted using commune database data, key informant interviews and focused group discussion with Sangkats (communes) and relevant government agencies in Siem Reap City. The Siem Reap City is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts and has fair resilience toward urban climate change. Siem Reap City remains high ID Poor people. It has a relatively high number of population (especially children and 60 years old) vulnerable to climate change. In addition, the main occupation in this city retains a high attribution of agricultural production, and it has been impacted by climate change. The balanced development should also be made for the communes (Sangkats) that are vulnerable to climate change impacts, especially the green infrastructure, social services, and job creation and livelihood diversification for vulnerable groups, which help reduce the vulnerability of urban areas to climate threats and also key factors for the enhancing response capacity and adaptation of the city, or scalling up small, more local and city-based climate actions.

Urban Vulnerability Analysis Based on Micro-Geographic Unit with Multi-Source Data—Case Study in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China

This study introduces a novel approach to urban public safety analysis inspired by a streetscape analysis commonly applied in urban criminology, leveraging the concept of micro-geographical units to account for urban spatial heterogeneity. Recognizing the intrinsic uniformity within these smaller, distinct environments of a city, the methodology represents a shift from large-scale regional studies to a more localized and precise exploration of urban vulnerability. The research objectives focus on three key aspects: first, establishing a framework for identifying and dividing cities into micro-geographical units; second, determining the type and nature of data that effectively illustrate the potential vulnerability of these units; and third, developing a robust and reliable evaluation index system for urban vulnerability. We apply this innovative method to Urumqi’s Tianshan District in Xinjiang, China, resulting in the formation of 30 distinct micro-geographical units. Using WorldView-2 remote sensing imagery and the object-oriented classification method, we extract and evaluate features related to vehicles, roads, buildings, and vegetation for each unit. This information feeds into the construction of a comprehensive index, used to assess public security vulnerability at a granular level. The findings from our study reveal a wide spectrum of vulnerability levels across the 30 units. Notably, units X1 (Er Dao Bridge) and X7 (Gold Coin Mountain International Plaza) showed high vulnerability due to factors such as a lack of green spaces, poor urban planning, dense building development, and traffic issues. Our research validates the utility and effectiveness of the micro-geographical unit concept in assessing urban vulnerability, thereby introducing a new paradigm in urban safety studies. This micro-geographical approach, combined with a multi-source data strategy involving high-resolution remote sensing and field survey data, offers a robust and comprehensive tool for urban vulnerability assessment. Moreover, the urban vulnerability evaluation index developed through this study provides a promising model for future urban safety research across different cities.

GIS-based seismic vulnerability assessment for the Istanbul Historical Peninsula

According to the Index of Risk Management-INFORM 2020 Report, Turkey was included in the group of “high-risk” countries in terms of humanitarian crises and disasters with an index score of 5.0 in 2019. In statistics related to the damage caused by disasters, it is known that natural disasters cause a 3% loss in Turkey's gross national product every year, and this rate approaches 4-5% with indirect losses. Since disasters cause socioeconomic, physical, and institutional losses, attention has been given to the importance of disaster management and risk reduction studies. This paper focuses on vulnerability assessments and presents a multi-criteria decision-making and earthquake-related vulnerability assessment method by using physical and socioeconomic parameters in the Historic Peninsula. A Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method was applied in this study because vulnerability assessments are complex and depend on many different criteria. Due to its flexible structure, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is one of the MCDM methods widely used in urban vulnerability assessment studies, was preferred and integrated with Geographic Information Systems. As a result of the study, it is found that approximately 49% of the district is at a moderate vulnerability level in terms of socioeconomic characteristics. For the structural characteristics, this rate is found to be at a high vulnerability level of 93%. The remaining 7% is moderately vulnerable. In this context, emphasis should be placed on identifying risky structures and strengthening and renovating them in the Historic Peninsula. The results of the method proposed in this study can be used as a basis for risk reduction studies. In addition, it can be a guide in pre-disaster risk reduction studies and can be integrated into city planning processes to keep disaster damage at minimum levels and predict the damage that may occur in settlements. The proposed method is a low-cost and short-term analysis that can be used, especially in public institutions that lack a technologically qualified workforce.

An Innovative Index for Evaluating Urban Vulnerability on Pandemic Using LambdaMART Algorithm

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed urban life and increased attention has been paid to the pandemic in discussions of urban vulnerability. There is a lack of methods to incorporate dynamic indicators such as urban vitality into evaluations of urban pandemic vulnerability. In this research, we use machine learning to establish an urban Pandemic Vulnerability Index (PVI) that measures the city’s vulnerability to the pandemic and takes dynamic indicators as an important aspect of this. The proposed PVI is constructed using 140 statistic variables and 10 dynamic variables, using data from 47 prefectures of Japan. Factor Analysis is used to extract factors from variables that may affect city vulnerability, and the LambdaMART algorithm is used to aggregate factors and predict vulnerability. The results show that the proposed PVI can predict the relative seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic in two weeks with a precision of more than 0.71, which is meaningful for taking controlling measures in advance and shaping the society’s response. Further analysis revealed the key factors affecting urban pandemic vulnerability, including city size, transit station vitality, and medical facilities, emphasizing precautions for public transport systems and new planning concepts such as the compact city. This research explores the application of machine learning techniques in the indicator establishment and incorporates dynamic factors into vulnerability assessments, which contribute to improvements in urban vulnerability assessments and the planning of sustainable cities while facing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responses of Urban Ecosystem Vulnerability and Restoration Assessment on Typhoon Disaster: A Case Study of Zhuhai City, China

With the frequent occurrence of extreme disasters and the development of urbanization, the ecological vulnerability of urban system has been seriously affected, which has become an important issue in urgent need of research. In this study, a comprehensive analysis method of exposure, sensitivity, responsiveness, and resilience was used to establish an ecological vulnerability assessment model based on the impact of typhoon. With the help of big data analysis and model, this paper explored the impact and response of typhoon Hato on Zhuhai’s ecological vulnerability and restoration. Our results showed that under the influence of Hato, Jinwan district showed higher vulnerability, followed by Doumen district and Xiangzhou district. The lowest vulnerability of Xiangzhou district mainly for its coping capacity was significantly higher than the other two districts. Judging from the recovery situation shown by big data, Doumen and Xiangzhou districts recovered relatively quickly in terms of hydraulic and communication systems. The results of this study can provide a theoretical reference for vulnerability assessment, predisaster prevention, and postdisaster recovery of typhoon disaster risk areas.

Assessment of Urban Vulnerability to Flooding Using Multi-Criteria Analysis

Urban vulnerabilities must be studied and assessed to make cities more resilient to floods. This study aimed to assess the urban vulnerability of El Bayadh city, located in the west of Algeria, to floods and to identify flood-prone areas. Using the Hierarchical Multi-criteria Analysis (HMA) method, a set of criteria was proposed such as population density, housing typology, type of equipment, and road network to measure the overall fragility of the study area. The Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to translate the obtained results and develop the global vulnerability map. The most important results were: 5.6% of the study area had an extreme vulnerability, 7.97% high vulnerability, 8.5% medium vulnerability, and 77.87% low vulnerability. The results of this study can be used as a tool to assist local authorities during decision-making regarding flood danger assessment.

Assessment of Urban Social Vulnerability Under the Background of Climate Change and Urbanization: Taking Wuhan as an Example

Assessment of Urban Social Vulnerability Under the Background of Climate Change and Urbanization: Taking Wuhan as an Example

A spatial model for assessment of urban vulnerability in the light of the UN New Urban Agenda guidelines: case study of Assiut City, Egypt.

Most cities in developing countries suffer environmental degradation caused by the growth of unplanned areas that sprawl in the cities. In the current paper, we attempted to integrate a set of selected UN-based urban indicators based on the New Urban Agenda (NUA) within a GIS framework to observe and assess some aspects of urban vulnerability among city districts based on deprivation. The vulnerability map for the districts in Assiut City was created through a spatial multicriteria evaluation model. Thirteen sub-indicators related to shelter, social environmental and economic situations have been assessed in the model using standardization, weighting and aggregation methods. Results revealed that: districts, namely, El Thaltha, El Owla, El Thania, and El Rabaa are most vulnerable in most scenarios, while districts, namely, El Sheyakha El Sabaa, and El Sadsa, El-Walidya El Qiblia and El-Hamra El Thania are among the least vulnerable zones. Results also revealed that vulnerable districts encompass the highest percentage of slums, highest density of population, highest rates for urban growth and poor connection to services. Eventually, we assume that the most vulnerable zones in the city are under the highest risk of airborne diseases including COVID-19 epidemic. Eventually, a subset of selected urban vulnerability indicators that could be triggering the spread of the pandemic was chosen for another spatial multcriteria model to delineate city zones under risk. The result revealed that expected high-risk areas exist in the south-west of the city and include El Thaltha, El Owla, El Thania and El Rabaa districts, while the least risk district is El-Walydia El-Qeblia. The applied methodology and its outputs could support decision makers in reviewing priorities, setting contingency plans, allocation of funds and raising resilience among the city districts.

Urban Vulnerability Assessment for Pandemic Surveillance—The COVID-19 Case in Bogotá, Colombia

A pandemic devastates the lives of global citizens and causes significant economic, social, and political disruption. Evidence suggests that the likelihood of pandemics has increased over the past century because of increased global travel and integration, urbanization, and changes in land use with a profound affectation of society–nature metabolism. Further, evidence concerning the urban character of the pandemic has underlined the role of cities in disease transmission. An early assessment of the severity of infection and transmissibility can help quantify the pandemic potential and prioritize surveillance to control highly vulnerable urban areas in pandemics. In this paper, an Urban Vulnerability Assessment (UVA) methodology is proposed. UVA investigates various vulnerability factors related to pandemics to assess the vulnerability in urban areas. A vulnerability index is constructed by the aggregation of multiple vulnerability factors computed on each urban area (i.e., urban density, poverty index, informal labor, transmission routes). This methodology is useful in a-priori evaluation and development of policies and programs aimed at reducing disaster risk (DRR) at different scales (i.e., addressing urban vulnerability at national, regional, and provincial scales), under diverse scenarios of resources scarcity (i.e., short and long-term actions), and for different audiences (i.e., the general public, policy-makers, international organizations). The applicability of UVA is shown by the identification of high vulnerable areas based on publicly available data where surveillance should be prioritized in the COVID-19 pandemic in Bogotá, Colombia.

Spatial assessment of urban heatwave vulnerability of coupling adaptability based on BPNN model: a case study of Xiamen City, China

The continuous advancement of urbanization and the acceleration of global climate warming have severely aggravated the heatwave vulnerability of the urban complex human–land system. Therefore, the scientific assessment of urban heatwave vulnerability (UHV) is particularly critical. We used Xiamen City, one of the representative heatwave disaster-prone cities, as a case study area. We then constructed a UHV index system that coupled adaptability and selected 12 indicators from the three dimensions: exposure, susceptibility, and adaptability. The back propagation neural network (BPNN) model was used to composite each indicator layer and produce UHV results. Finally, we analyzed the spatial distribution characteristics of UHV. We found that the BPNN model had good training performance, with an overall accuracy of 0.92986. The value of UHV ranged from 0 to 1 and was divided into five grades, from low to high were 18.45%, 18.72%, 17.16%, 28.76%, and 16.91. In terms of spatial characteristics, high adaptability significantly improved UHV. The high value of UHV presented specific agglomeration characteristics, and the extremely vulnerable and disordered areas were mainly located in Huli District and the junction of Siming District and Huli District. The research will provide a new theoretical perspective and framework for urban heatwave assessment and help for disaster management and sustainable development in a high-risk area.

Assessment and evaluation of urban vulnerability to earthquake in the province of Ilam

Assessment and evaluation of urban vulnerability to earthquake in the province of Ilam

Vulnerability assessment and visualization of large-scale bus transit network under route service disruption

Having a vulnerability assessment of a large-scale bus transit network (LBTN), an essential part of urban vulnerability assessment, is indispensable for developing urban transportation sustainability. The complex network approach is usually used to realize this goal because it focuses on a mesoscopic perspective and has a unique advantage of calculation efficiency in large-scale networks. However, the vulnerability assessment of LBTNs is usually tested based on node attacks or edge attacks rather than route attacks because of the widely existing “route collinear problem”, which makes the infrastructure disruption and the route service disruption indistinguishable. This paper establishes a novel vulnerability assessment and visualization framework under the perspective of route service disruption. This framework provides a novel perspective for understanding complex systems, lays the foundation for LBTN risk identification, and significantly lowers the availability barrier of the required data, thereby extending the vulnerability study framework based on a complex network approach, from statistical physics to engineering.

Do urban planning and sprawl affect social vulnerability? An assessment of Dar es Salaam

ABSTRACT This study explores connections between urban planning, sprawl, and social vulnerability factors in the Sub-Saharan context with the aim to investigate the influence of broader planning and land use aspects in quantitative urban social vulnerability assessment. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania serves as the study area because of its substantial informal development, sprawling, and availability of reliable datasets for recent years. Two main research questions are proposed: does urban planning reduce social vulnerability (measured by quality of life and mobility) and does urban sprawl contribute to social vulnerability in this city? Results indicate formally planned urban areas are associated with higher levels of quality of life and mobility. Further results indicate no significant impact of sprawl on social vulnerability factors of residents in the general urban areas of Dar es Salaam, however, informal sprawl is linked to higher social vulnerability.

Analysis of urban vulnerability as a tool for cultural heritage preservation. The cases of the medium-sized historical ensembles in Andalusia

This paper presents the urban vulnerability assessment as a complementary resource in heritage preservation policies, through the analysis of the thirty-nine medium-sized cities that have been listed as Historical Ensemble in Andalusia (Spain). The research seeks to make a sequential approach that addresses, from the general –the conceptual framework on urban vulnerability and the characterization of the analysis sample– to the particular –the analysis of the socio-economic, socio-demographic or residential vulnerability applied to the intermediate scale which has not been in-deep studied yet–. For this, it proposes to adopt the methodology implemented by the Spanish Ministry of Development in the Atlas of Urban Vulnerability, providing a territorial lecture of the results. The study concludes that medium-sized cities do not present a level of vulnerability lower to the largest ones but detecting specific urban weaknesses that should be addressed to improve the response of these cities to heritage preservation.

Review of current approaches to spatially explicit urban vulnerability assessments: hazard complexity, data sources, and cartographic representations

Abstract Socio-ecological hazards are processes that − depending on the vulnerability of societal systems − may have profound adverse impacts. For this reason, the current discourse in disaster risk reduction (DRR) has been experiencing a shift toward a vulnerability-led paradigm, raising new questions about how to address (i) the complexity of vulnerabilities to multiple hazards, (ii) their cultural, dynamic, and subjective character, and (iii) the effectiveness and legitimacy of vulnerability assessments as decision-support tools. In this paper, we present a review of 707 vulnerability studies (derived from the Clarivate WoS database; 1988−2018) with a particular focus on urban settings and spatially explicit assessments in order to evaluate current efforts to meet the aforementioned issues. The reviewed studies assessed vulnerabilities to 35 hazard types that were predominantly (n=603, 85%) analysed as single hazards (mostly seismic, flood, and groundwater contamination hazards, as well as climate change), whereas only 15% (n=104) of studies focused on multiple hazards (mostly atmospheric hazards). Within the spatially explicit vulnerability studies, almost 60% used data collected by the study itself (mostly seismic hazards), while statistical and combined data were both employed in 20% of cases (mostly floods, climate change, and social and political hazards). Statistical data were found to have only limited transferability, often being generalised to be applicable in small-scale studies, while reducing the role of cultural and contextual factors. Field research data provided high-resolution information, but their acquisition is time-consuming, and therefore fixed at a local scale and single temporal stage. Underlying hazard types and suitable data sources resulting in other differences found a preference towards the specific coverage and resolution of vulnerability maps that appeared in 44% of all reviewed studies. Altogether, the differences we found indicated a division of spatially explicit vulnerability research in two major directions: (i) geological and geomorphological studies focusing on physical vulnerability, using their own data surveys at a detailed scale and lacking links to other hazards, and (ii) other studies (mostly atmospheric hazards and socialpolitical hazards) focusing on social or combined vulnerabilities, using primarily statistical or combined data at a municipal, regional, and country scale with occasional efforts to integrate multiple hazards. Finally, although cartographic representations have become a frequent component of vulnerability studies, our review found only vague rationalisations for the presentation of maps, and a lack of guidelines for the interpretation of uncertainties and the use of maps as decision-support tools.

Urban Vulnerability Assessment With Passive Defense Approach (Case study: District 20 of Tehran City)

با توجه به تغییر ماهیت جنگ‌ها، حملة هوایی و موشکی وسیع در شروع و طول درگیری به تأسیسات حیاتی، حساس و مهم نظامی، غیر نظامی و حتی منطقه‌های مسکونی، اداری، تجاری، آموزشی و... امری عادی تلقی می‌شود. بر این‌اساس ارزیابی آسیب‌پذیری شهرها در جنگ‌ها و تدوین راهکارهای مناسب برای کاهش آسیب‌پذیری و خسارت ضروری می‌باشد. پژوهش حاضر با هدف بررسی ایمنی فضاهای شهری در سطح منطقة 20 شهرداری تهران و با توجه به اصول پدافند غیر عامل و شناسایی و از بین بردن عامل‌های کاهش‌دهندة ایمنی در سطح محدوده انجام گرفته است. روش تحقیق برای تبیین وضع موجود، روش توصیفی - تحلیلی می‌باشد. روش جمع‌آوری اطلاعات بر مبنای کتابخانه‌ای و نیز میدانی (پرسشنامه‌ای) بوده و تجزیه و تحلیل اطلاعات به‌دست آمده با استفاده از روش تحلیل سلسله‌مراتبی و سامانة اطلاعات جغرافیایی انجام گرفته است. و درنهایت، یافته‌ها نشان می‌دهند که در سطح منطقه، سه حوزة مخاطره‌آمیز عمده در شرایط بحران و مستعد آسیب وجود دارند که مهم‌ترین آنها هستة فرسودة مرکزی، محدودة پرتراکم دولت‌آباد و بخش‌هایی از محلة سیزدة آبان با مجموع 34 درصد از کل مساحت کاربری‌های سطح منطقه است که بیشترین میزان آسیب‌پذیری را شامل می شوند و علت این موضوع، وضعیت نامناسب شاخص‌های کالبدی و بافت کم‌کیفیت و پرتراکم این محله‌ها در محدوده می‌باشد. در این تحقیق، جامعة آماری منطقة 20 شهرداری تهران و حجم نمونة 384 نفر از ساکنان ناحیه‌های پنج‌گانه می‌باشد. این منطقه در طرح‌های فرادست، به‌عنوان بخشی مهم از شهر تهران معرفی شده (به علت استقرار کاربری‌های راهبردی) و از این‌رو ارزیابی آسیب‌پذیری آن از اهمیتی ویژه برخوردار است. در پایان پیشنهادها و راهکارهای لازم برای رعایت پیشگیرانة اصول پدافند غیر عامل در محدودة مورد مطالعه ارائه گردیده است.

Measuring urban vulnerability to climate change using an integrated approach, assessing climate risks in Beijing.

This study is responding to the recommendation made by IPCC’s fifth Assessment Report on establishing a standard for measuring and reporting climate risk and vulnerability. It exemplifies the assessment of urban vulnerability to climate change by an integrated approach. The results indicate that Beijing is highly exposed to multiple climate threats in the context of global climate change, specifically urban heat waves, urban drainage floods and drought. Vulnerabilities to the climatic threats of heat waves, drainage floods and droughts have increased by 5%–15% during the period of 2008–2016 in Beijing. High vulnerabilities to both heat waves and drainage floods have been observed in the urban downtown area and high vulnerability to droughts have been observed in the outskirts. This vulnerability assessment, which addressed climatic threats, provides a holistic understanding of the susceptibility to climate change that could facilitate adaptation to climate change in the future. The developments of threats like flooding, heat waves and droughts are analyzed separately for 16 districts and an integrated vulnerability index for all of Beijing is provided as well.

A methodology for urban micro-scale coastal flood vulnerability and risk assessment and mapping

One of the most dangerous challenges to settlements in the UK comes from flooding. Currently, there is extensive map coverage of flood hazards zones in the UK; however, it is increasingly recognised that risk associated with natural hazards cannot be reduced solely by focussing on the hazard. There is also an urgent need for methods of evaluating and mapping flood vulnerability and risk in detail. Despite its significance, conventional flood risk assessment methodologies often underestimate likely levels of vulnerability in areas prone to hazards, yet it is the degree of vulnerability within a community that determines the consequences of any given hazard. The research presented proposes a general methodology to assess and map Coastal Flood Vulnerability and Risk at a detailed, micro-scale level. This captures aspects that are considered crucial and representative of reality (socio-economic, physical and resilient features). The methodology is then applied to a UK case study (city of Portsmouth). Environment Agency flood hazard data, National Census socio-economic data and Ordnance Survey topographic map data have been used to evaluate and map coastal flood vulnerability, examining neighbourhoods within census wards. This led to a subsequent analysis of Coastal Flood Risk, via the combination of a Coastal Flood Vulnerability Index and a Coastal Flood Hazard Index, for the Portsmouth ward Hilsea. This, consequently, identifies potential weaknesses that could lead to more effective targeting of interventions to improve resilience and reduce vulnerability in the long term and provides a basis for hazard and environmental managers/planners to generate comprehensive national/international vulnerability and risk assessments.

VisualUVAM: A Decision Support System Addressing the Curse of Dimensionality for the Multi-Scale Assessment of Urban Vulnerability in Spain

Many-objective optimization methods have proven successful in the integration of research attributes demanded for urban vulnerability assessment models. However, these techniques suffer from the curse of the dimensionality problem, producing an excessive burden in the decision-making process by compelling decision-makers to select alternatives among a large number of candidates. In other fields, this problem has been alleviated through cluster analysis, but there is still a lack in the application of such methods for urban vulnerability assessment purposes. This work addresses this gap by a novel combination of visual analytics and cluster analysis, enabling the decision-maker to select the set of indicators best representing urban vulnerability accordingly to three criteria: expert’s preferences, goodness of fit, and robustness. Based on an assessment framework previously developed, VisualUVAM affords an evaluation of urban vulnerability in Spain at regional, provincial, and municipal scales, whose results demonstrate the effect of the governmental structure of a territory over the vulnerability of the assessed entities.