Sustainability and Social Justice

Developing Composite Indices for Assessing Vulnerability

Document Type

Article

Abstract

A major consequence of global environmental change is projected to be the alteration in flood periodicity, magnitude, and geographic patterns. There are a number of extant methods designed to help identify areas vulnerable to these consequences, the construction of composite vulnerability indices prominent among them. In this paper we have implemented the Order Rated Effectiveness (ORE) model (Klimberg & Ratick, 2020) to produce composite flood vulnerability indicators through the aggregation of six constituent vulnerability indicators future projected for 204 hydrologic subbasins that cover the contiguous US. The ORE aggregation results, when compared with those obtained using the Weighted Linear Combination and Data Envelopment Analysis, provided a more robust and actionable distribution of composite vulnerability results for decision-makers when prioritizing Hydrologic Unit Codes for further analysis and for effectively and efficiently implementing adaptation and mitigation strategies to address the flooding consequences due to global climate change.

Publication Title

Applications of Management Science

Publication Date

1-1-2020

Volume

20

First Page

117

Last Page

142

ISSN

0276-8976

DOI

10.1108/S0276-897620200000020009

Keywords

aggregation, climate change, composite indicators, multi-criteria evaluation, order rated effectiveness (ORE), vulnerability

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