Sustainability and Social Justice

A Multi-Criteria Geographic Information Systems Approach for the Measurement of Vulnerability to Climate Change

Document Type

Article

Abstract

A flexible procedure for the development of a multi-criteria composite index to measure relative vulnerability under future climate change scenarios is presented. The composite index is developed using the Weighted Ordered Weighted Average (WOWA) aggregation technique which enables the selection of different levels of trade-off, which controls the degree to which indicators are able to average out others. We explore this approach in an illustrative case study of the United States (US), using future projections of widely available indicators quantifying flood vulnerability under two scenarios of climate change. The results are mapped for two future time intervals for each climate scenario, highlighting areas that may exhibit higher future vulnerability to flooding events. Based on a Monte Carlo robustness analysis, we find that the WOWA aggregation technique can provide a more flexible and potentially robust option for the construction of vulnerability indices than traditionally used approaches such as Weighted Linear Combinations (WLC). This information was used to develop a proof-of-concept vulnerability assessment to climate change impacts for the US Army Corps of Engineers. Lessons learned in this study informed the climate change screening analysis currently under way.

Publication Title

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change

Publication Date

3-1-2017

Volume

22

Issue

3

First Page

349

Last Page

368

ISSN

1381-2386

DOI

10.1007/s11027-015-9674-8

Keywords

decision support, flooding, GIS, multiple criteria evaluation, vulnerability, weighted ordered weighted average

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