Measuring Resilience to Natural Hazards: Towards Sustainable Hazard Mitigation

Sustainability

Jae Heon Shim¹  Chun-Il Kim² 

[1] Department of Research and Development, Research Institute of Korea Appraisal Board, 291, Innovalley-ro, Dong-gu, Daegu Metropolitan City 701-870, Korea; E-Mail:;M.I.T. Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 9-238, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA

关键词: natural hazards;    resilience;    vulnerability;    confirmatory factor analysis;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su71014153

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Measuring resilience to natural hazards is a central issue in the hazard mitigation sciences. This paper applied a confirmatory factor methodology to operationalize the biophysical, built-environment, and socioeconomic resilience dimensions for local jurisdictions in large urban metropolitan areas in South Korea. Mapping the factor scores of the dimensions revealed great spatial variations. The factor covariances showed a trade-off relationship between natural infrastructure and human activities. A hierarchical cluster analysis was used to classify the localities into heterogeneous groups with respect to the identified resilience dimensions. Densely developed and affluent urban areas tend to lack biophysical resilience. Some local governments, sorted into the same groups, turn out to be located in different metropolitan areas. The spatial variation and inequality in the resilience dimensions suggest the necessity of integrated and flexible governance for sustainable hazard mitigation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.