Methodology and Application of Spatial Vulnerability Assessment for Evacuation Shelters in Disaster Planning

Hiranya Sritart, Hiroyuki Miyazaki, Sakiko Kanbara and Takashi Hara
Additional contact information
Hiranya Sritart: School of Engineering and Technology, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Asian Institute of Technology, Post Box No 4, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
Hiroyuki Miyazaki: School of Engineering and Technology, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Asian Institute of Technology, Post Box No 4, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
Sakiko Kanbara: Faculty of Nursing, University of Kochi, Ike Kochi 2751-1, Japan
Takashi Hara: Data cradle, 1-7-2 Achi, Kurashiki 710-0055, Japan

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 18, 1-22

Abstract: Evacuation shelters are the most important means for safeguarding people in hazardous areas and situations, and thus minimizing losses, particularly those due to a disaster. Therefore, evacuation shelter assignment and evacuation planning are some of the critical factors for reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience in disaster risk reduction. However, an imbalance of shelter distribution and spatial heterogeneity of a population are the critical issues limiting the accessibility of evacuation shelters in real situations. In this study, we propose a methodology for spatial assessment to reduce vulnerability and evaluate the spatial distribution of both shelter demand and resources, considering spatial accessibility. The method was applied to the case study of Mabi, in the context of a disaster caused by the 2018 flooding. We applied this approach to evaluate the area and identified the vulnerability of the evacuation shelters and the residents. The proposed method revealed that 54.55% of the designated evacuation shelters and 59% of the total population were physically vulnerable to the flood. The results highlight, using GIS maps, that the total shelter capacity was significantly decreased to 43.86%. The outcome assessment addressed specific vulnerable shelters and the imbalance between the demand for and resources of each shelter. Accordingly, this study provides practical information and a valuable reference for supporting local governments and stakeholders to improve future disaster planning, prevention, and preparedness.

Keywords: evacuation shelters; spatial distribution; spatial accessibility; GIS; vulnerability assessment; shelter demand and resources; disaster risk reduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7355/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7355/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7355-:d:410381

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().