Flood Vulnerability Analysis in Urban Context: A Socioeconomic Sub-Indicators Overview

Despite indicators-based assessment models for flood vulnerability being a well-established methodology, a specific set of indicators that are universally or widely accepted has not been recognized yet. This work aims to review previous studies in the field of vulnerability analysis in order to overcome this knowledge gap identifying the most accepted sub-indicators of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Moreover, this review aims to clarify the use of the terms of vulnerability and risk in vulnerability assessment. Throughout a three-phase process, a matrix containing all the sub-indicators encountered during the review process was constructed. Then, based on an adaptation of the Pareto diagram, a set of the most relevant sub-indicators was identified. According to the citation count of each sub-indicator, indeed, 33 sub-indicators were chosen to represent the most universally or widely accepted sub-indicators.

Automated summary

This research reviews previous studies to identify and clarify the most accepted indicators of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity in flood vulnerability assessment, filling a knowledge gap in the field.