Urban Resilience to Flooding: Triangulation of Methods for Hazard Identification in Urban Areas

Maria do Céu Almeida, Maria João Telhado, Marco Morais, João Barreiro and Ruth Lopes
Additional contact information
Maria do Céu Almeida: Urban Water Unit, National Civil Engineering Laboratory, LNEC, Av. Brasil 101, 1700-066 Lisbon, Portugal
Maria João Telhado: Lisbon City Council, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, CML, Praça José Queirós, n.º1 – 3º piso – Fração 5, 1800-237 Lisboa, Portugal
Marco Morais: Lisbon City Council, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, CML, Praça José Queirós, n.º1 – 3º piso – Fração 5, 1800-237 Lisboa, Portugal
João Barreiro: CEris, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Ruth Lopes: HIDRA, Av. Defensores de Chaves, 31 – 1º Esq., 1000-111 Lisboa, Portugal

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: The effects of climate dynamics on urban areas involve the aggravation of existing conditions and the potential for emergence of new hazards or risk factors. Floods are recognized as a leading source of consequences to society, including disruption of critical functions in urban areas, and to the environment. Consideration of the interplay between services providers ensuring urban functions is essential to deal with climate dynamics and associated risks. Assessment of resilience to multiple hazards requires integrated and multi-sectoral approaches embracing each strategic urban sector and interactions between them. A common limitation resides in the limited data and tools available for undertaking these complex assessments. The paper proposes a methodology to undertake the spatial characterization of the flood related hazards and exposure of both essential functions and services providers in urban areas, in the context of limitations in data and in ready-to-use tools. Results support the resilience assessment of these hazards, taking into account interdependencies and cascading effects. The approach is applied to Lisbon city as the study case. Results are promising in demonstrating the potential of combining data and knowledge from different sources with dual modelling approaches, allowing us to obtain trends on the magnitude of effects of climate scenarios and to assess potential benefits of adaptation strategies. Quantification of the effects is reached, but results need to be assessed together with the underlying levels of uncertainty. The methodology can facilitate dialogue among stakeholders and between different decision levels.

Keywords: climate change; flooding; hazard mapping; risk identification; sustainability; urban resilience (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 (6)

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