Assessment of socioeconomic vulnerability to landslides using an indicator-based approach: methodology and case studies

Abstract

International audienceThe severity of the impact of a natural hazard on a society depends on, among other factors, the intensity of the hazard and the exposure and resistance ability of the elements at risk (e.g., persons, buildings and infrastructures). Social conditions strongly influence the vulnerability factors for both direct and indirect impact and therefore control the possibility to transform the occurrence of a natural hazard into a natural disaster. This article presents a model to assess the relative socioeconomic vulnerability to landslides at the local to regional scale. The model applies an indicator-based approach. The indicators represent the underlying factors that influence a community's ability to prepare for, deal with, and recover from the damage and loss associated with landslides. The proposed model includes indicators that characterize the demographic, social and economic setting as well as indicators representing the degree of preparedness, effectiveness of the response and capacity to recover. Although this model focuses primarily on the indirect losses, it could easily be extended to include physical indicators accounting for the direct losses. Each indicator is individually ranked from 1 (lowest vulnerability) to 5 (highest vulnerability) and weighted, based on its overall degree of influence. The final vulnerability estimate is formulated as a weighted average of the individual indicator scores. The proposed model is applied for six case studies in Europe. The case studies demonstrate that the method gives a reasonable ranking of the vulnerability. The practical experience achieved through the case studies shows that the model is straightforward for users with knowledge on landslide locations and with access to local census data

Stability Analysis and Confidence Level Evaluation of Backfill Mining under High and Steep Rock Slopes

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An integrated methodology to develop a standard for landslide early warning systems

“…The dissemination and communication process is equally important to assess the community risk perception and its efficiency (Eidsvig et al, 2014;Lateltin et al, 2005). Methods and materials for dissemination are tailored based on the preliminary data of the risk assessment and mapping that have been performed.…”

“…Two components highlighted for the delivery of the "priorities for action" are risk assessment and early warning in order to respond effectively to a disaster, specifically, by implementing a simple, low-cost early warning system and improving the dissemination of information at local and national levels. The need for a legal standard is important to exemplify the early warning capacity and increase community compliance (Eidsvig et al, 2014). Considering that landslide disasters commonly occur at local areas with similar geomorphology and geological conditions, the proposed standard within this paper only addresses local-scale landslides.…”

Spatial Environmental Modeling for Wildfire Progression Accelerating Extent Analysis Using Geo-Informatics

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