Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Using GIS and Fuzzy AHP on an Indicator-Based Approach

Abstract

This study aims at integrating GIS method and fuzzy AHP to evaluate the impact of climate change under the vulnerability concept. The results of this empirical study in Da Nang city have significant scientific contribution to the generation of comprehensive indicators for assessing the climate vulnerability of coastal cities in the Central region of Vietnam. The approach of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in climate change vulnerability assessment was examined considering three main components of vulnerability which are exposure to hazards, local sensitivity and adaptive capacity. A GIS-based approach was applied to generate a set of indicators and the fuzzy AHP method was investigated for the determination of a weighted scheme for parameters included in the climate vulnerability assessment. The study results indicated that the coastal and lowland districts including Ngu Hanh Son, Hoa Vang, Cam Le and Thanh Khe districts are most vulnerable to climate change due to high exposure, high sensitivity and limited adaptive capacity. On the contrary, the district with high level of adaptive capacity such as Hai Chau district is usually ranged in low level of vulnerability. The results confirm the importance of enhanced adaptive capacity in responding to the impact of climate change.