A Climate Change Vulnerability Index and Case Study in a Brazilian Coastal City

Abstract

Coastal areas are highly susceptible to the effects of climate change, particularly to sea-level rise and extreme rainfall events, resulting in increased social and environmental vulnerabilities. In this context, the need for predictive planning instruments, especially in densely populated coastal areas, is a critical management priority. A number of indexes has been developed to assess coastal vulnerability. However, coastal vulnerability indexes are yet to simultaneously consider inland (e.g., landslides and flooding) and ocean (sea-level rise and coastal erosion) hazards in conjunction. To help fill this gap, we developed the Socio-Environmental Vulnerability Index for Coastal Areas. The proposed index is a diagnostic tool to assess the socio-environmental vulnerability of coastal regions in the context of climate change. Applied to the city of Santos, a coastal municipality in São Paulo state, Brazil, the index revealed that most of the city are in areas highly vulnerable to sea-level rise and floods related to extreme rainfall events. Findings show that, in fact, approximately 70% of the area of Santos (27.5 km 2 ) consists of high vulnerability areas mostly located close to urban drainage channels, residential, and other built-in areas. Another 0.12% (0.05 km 2 ) were classified as very high vulnerability areas compromising port and industrial infrastructure. These results highlights the susceptibility of the urban insular area of Santos to climatic change hazards. This study might prove relevant to support local decision-makers in preparing adaptation plans and responding to climate-related risks in vulnerable coastal cities.

Relationships among Environmental Attitudes, Risk Perceptions, and Coping Behavior: A Case Study of Four Environmentally Sensitive Townships in Yunlin County, Taiwan

“…The environmental changes that arise from climate change have become a major issue globally [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The main effects are a large increase in the incidence of extreme weather events, changes in the global hydrological cycle, accelerated water vapor evaporation, increased intensity of precipitation, and increased frequency of heat waves [7].…”

A Framework to Evaluate Urban Flood Resilience of Design Alternatives for Flood Defence Considering Future Adverse Scenarios

“…In addition to the probability of occurrence of events of greater magnitude than that of the design event, when the actions to reduce flood risks are defined, there are uncertainties regarding the potential disturbance in the current hydrological patterns related to the climate change. Most studies comprising future assessments of the urban system operations consider the impacts of climate change using the Representative Concentration Pathway RCP-4.5 scenario, which represents a medium impact scenario, with a temperature increase between 0.9 and 2.0 • C for the year of 2040 [62]. When considering the end of the century, this increase may reach up to 6 • C [63].…”

Coastal Vulnerability to Erosion Using a Multi-Criteria Index: A Case Study of the Xiamen Coast

“…(1) Coastal geomorphology: Coastal geomorphology refers to the surface type of a coastal zone. Different surface types in coastal zones respond differently to coastal erosion; for example, sandy coasts are more vulnerable to erosion than rocky coasts [6,21,30,58]. The surface types of coastal zones are divided into two categories, namely, natural surface types (rocky coasts, gravel coasts and sandy coasts) and artificial surface types (seawall, port and revetment).…”

“…In recent years, coastal vulnerability assessments have received widespread attention [17,18]. However, most previous studies have focused on sea level rise caused by climate change [11,[19][20][21] and vulnerability assessments associated with storms [22,23], and fewer assessments have focused on the coastal vulnerability to erosion [17,24,25]. For example, most previous studies have ignored the important influence of artificial coasts on the coastal vulnerability to erosion.…”