Risk Mapping in Managing Flood Vulnerability in Disaster Management

Flood risk is a product of hazard and vulnerability, and is important in managing floods, making decisions, and developing policies. While different approaches can be used to construct these maps, Geographic Information System (GIS)-based maps are increasingly being adopted, which requires researchers to utilize differ­ent layers of information. Poorly constructed indices can present misleading messages; therefore, this chapter analyzes existing vulnerability indicators across geographic region and flood type. Moreover, all the indicators are examined for their selection criteria where a priority is given to each, to understand which indicator is more important than another. These weights were then inputted into a sankey diagram to easily interpret which vulnerability dimension, indicator, and flood type is of highest priority. While these diagrams will assist researchers with their indicator selection process they will still encounter challenges with data scarcity and outdated data. Therefore, we propose the use of non-traditional data sources like social media to further enhance the flood vulnerability maps, a crucial requirement for crisis responders who need to prioritize their response operations.