Territorial Vulnerability Assessment Supporting Risk Managing Coastal Areas Due to Tsunami Impact

Abstract

Portugal's coastline extends 1187 km. It is characterized by social, economic and physical conditions that differentiate it from the rest of the territory, including population density, location of infrastructure and support of tourism activities. Therefore, it has a significant exposure if a tsunami occurs. Six coastal study sites with varying characteristics were selected for evaluation in this paper, including two core beach-use areas, two residential areas and two industrial areas. These sites are located in the municipalities of Figueira da Foz, Setúbal and Vila do Bispo. The analysis began with the calculation of the potential tsunami inundation area for each site using the 1755 Lisbon tsunami. Next, a methodology distinguished by its multidimensional character was applied to assess local vulnerability to tsunamis. This methodology assesses vulnerabilities associated with morphological, structural, social and tax factors. These four vulnerability components were combined to obtain a Composite Vulnerability Index (CVI), which enabled us to identify the most vulnerable areas and to determine the distinguishing characteristics of each area.

Safety and Reliability – Safe Societies in a Changing World

“…The principal objective of this work is to evaluate the Social Vulnerability at municipal level in mainland Portugal. This evaluation will be assessed using principal component analysis (PCA), a technic also used by different authors like Cutter et al (2003), Schmidtlein et al (2008), Mendes (2009), Barros et al (2015), with adaptations according to regional and local specificities, expressed in the type of variables and unit of analysis to be selected. For PCA was used the software SPSS ® , version 23.…”

Long-term land-use changes in small/medium-sized cities. Enhancing the general trends and local characteristics

“…ASspeed of urbanization in the study area TA n+itotal study area to be calculated at the time point i + n UA n+i and UA isurfaces with urban fabric and infrastrutures in the target unit at time i + n and i nnumber of years in each period 1985/1995; 1995/2011, for a total of 27 classes of land use (Table 3). This type of analysis has been applied by a wide range of authors, in the most diverse settings (Barros, Tavares, & Santos, 2015;Schmidtlein, Deutsch, Piegorsch, & Cutter, 2008;Tavares, Barros, & Santos, 2016;Zhang, Wu, & Shen, 2011). The analysis was carried out for the three cities.…”

Decennial comparison of changes in social vulnerability: A municipal analysis in support of risk management

“…These characteristics make SV an indispensable tool for the characterization and understanding of the degree of exposure of the communities, but also their capacity for resisting and recovering in face of hazardous events. The evaluation of SV as a tool for measuring risk management strategies has grown in recent decades and has been carried out in several contexts, for example, regarding the risk of floods [12], tsunami [13,14], environmental hazards [15] and climate change [16].…”