Methodology and Application of Spatial Vulnerability Assessment for Evacuation Shelters in Disaster Planning

Abstract

Evacuation shelters are the most important means for safeguarding people in hazardous areas and situations, and thus minimizing losses, particularly those due to a disaster. Therefore, evacuation shelter assignment and evacuation planning are some of the critical factors for reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience in disaster risk reduction. However, an imbalance of shelter distribution and spatial heterogeneity of a population are the critical issues limiting the accessibility of evacuation shelters in real situations. In this study, we propose a methodology for spatial assessment to reduce vulnerability and evaluate the spatial distribution of both shelter demand and resources, considering spatial accessibility. The method was applied to the case study of Mabi, in the context of a disaster caused by the 2018 flooding. We applied this approach to evaluate the area and identified the vulnerability of the evacuation shelters and the residents. The proposed method revealed that 54.55% of the designated evacuation shelters and 59% of the total population were physically vulnerable to the flood. The results highlight, using GIS maps, that the total shelter capacity was significantly decreased to 43.86%. The outcome assessment addressed specific vulnerable shelters and the imbalance between the demand for and resources of each shelter. Accordingly, this study provides practical information and a valuable reference for supporting local governments and stakeholders to improve future disaster planning, prevention, and preparedness.

Flood Resilience and Adaptation in the Built Environment: How Far along Are We?

“…Strategies oriented towards the users take into account the response to the disaster conditions in the flood-affected BE, and so they are mainly devoted to the immediate emergency response (including the evacuation) and the immediate aftermath (including evacuation sheltering) [16,[85][86][87]. These strategies include both structural and non-structural measures for increasing the safety of users who can be initially exposed to the flood (e.g., because of their localization in the BE) and who can encounter potential threats over time (e.g., because they can move through or towards flood-affected areas).…”

Assessing Community Resilience to Urban Flooding in Multiple Types of the Transient Population in China

“…When it comes to vulnerability or resilience assessment, geographic information systems (GIS) have become powerful tools for identifying vulnerable communities and locations, at different scales [37][38][39]. There are also many studies that have conceived different GIS methods to predict, evaluate, and analyze the vulnerability and resilience of social environmental systems [40][41][42][43][44]. GIS can help governments, environmental agencies, and insurance companies to improve prevention, early warning mechanisms, and mitigation efforts using predictive analytics.…”