Physical vulnerability assessment for alpine hazards: state of the art and future needs

Author(s)

Maria Papathoma-Köhle, Melanie Kappes, Margreth Keiler, Thomas Glade

Abstract

Mountain hazards such as landslides, floods and avalanches pose a serious

threat to human lives and development and can cause considerable damage to lifelines,

critical infrastructure, agricultural lands, housing, public and private infrastructure and

assets. The assessment of the vulnerability of the built environment to these hazards is a

topic that is growing in importance due to climate change impacts. A proper understanding

of vulnerability will lead to more effective risk assessment, emergency management and to

the development of mitigation and preparedness activities all of which are designed to

reduce the loss of life and economic costs. In this study, we are reviewing existing methods

for vulnerability assessment related to mountain hazards. By analysing the existing

approaches, we identify difficulties in their implementation (data availability, time consumption)

and differences between them regarding their scale, the consideration of the

hazardous phenomenon and its properties, the consideration of important vulnerability

indicators and the use of technology such as GIS and remote sensing. Finally, based on

these observations, we identify the future needs in the field of vulnerability assessment that

include the user-friendliness of the method, the selection of all the relevant indicators,

the transferability of the method, the inclusion of information concerning the hazard itself,

the use of technology (GIS) and the provision of products such as vulnerability maps and

the consideration of the temporal pattern of vulnerability.

Organisation(s)

Department of Geography and Regional Research

Journal

Natural Hazards

Pages

645-680

No. of pages

36

ISSN

0921-030X

Publication date

2011

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

105408 Physical geography, 507001 Applied geography

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 13 - Climate Action

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