Exposure and Vulnerability Geospatial Analysis Using Earth Observation Data in the City of Liege, Belgium

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Risk situation can be mitigated by prevention measures, early warning tools and adequate monitoring of past experiences where Earth Observation and geospatial analysis have an adding value. This paper discusses the potential use of Earth Observation data and especially Land Cover / Land Use map in addressing within the three aspects of the risk assessment: danger, exposure and vulnerability. Evidences of the harmful effects of air pollution or heat waves are widely admitted and should increase in the context of global warming. Moreover, urban areas are generally warmer than rural surroundings, the so-called urban heat island. Combined with in-situ measurements, this paper presents models of city or local climate (air pollution and urban heat island), with a resolution of less than one kilometer, developed by integrating several sources of information including Earth Observation data and in particular Land Cover / Land Use. This assessment of the danger is then be related to a map of exposure and vulnerable people. Using dasymetric method to disaggregate statistical information on Land Cover / Land Use data, the SmartPop project analyzes in parallel the map of danger with the maps of people exposure A special focus on some categories at risk such as the elderly has been proposed by . Perspectives of the project includes the integration of a new Land Cover / Land Use map in the danger, exposure and vulnerability models and proposition of several aspects of risk assessment with the stakeholders of Wallonia.

A user-driven process for INSPIRE-compliant land use database: example from Wallonia, Belgium

“…Local and regional stakeholders benefit from LU maps for decision-making as LU data enable them to assess past or draw new spatial planning strategies for promoting sustainable development (Hersperger et al 2018), protecting and reinforcing environmental assets (Cunha and Magalhães 2019), and improving built, economic, and social environments of communities (Barton 2009). When combined with land cover (LC) data, LU data offer great tools, especially for monitoring land take (Science for Environment Policy 2016), modelling flood risks (Akter et al 2018;Stephenne et al 2017), and managing various geospatial data sets (Aubrecht et al, 2009). This paper describes how Wallonia, in southern Belgium, developed a new LU mapping scheme that provides INSPIRE-compliant data built and designed to answer regional and local stakeholders' needs.…”