Identification of Typhoon-Vulnerable Areas and Countermeasures in High-Density Coastal Cities: The Case of Macau

Abstract

Typhoons are extremely severe weather events which seriously threaten the safety of people’s lives and properties. Therefore, identifying and controlling typhoon disaster hazards have become important research topics. The spatial–temporal characteristics of typhoons are analysed using the typhoon disaster data in Macau from 2000 to 2020. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation is adopted to understand the 3D urban wind environment. Moreover, the ‘exposure, sensitivity and adaptation’ evaluation model is applied to construct the study framework. To calculate urban disaster vulnerability, the Create Fishnet tool is used to divide the city of Macau into 470 grids. The principal component analysis method is used to reveal the factors that significantly affect the typhoon’s vulnerable areas. Result shows that 31.27% of grids are severely vulnerable. In addition, six principal components are identified, including indicators such as population density, building area ratio, mean elevation and wind speed. This study verifies the feasibility of wind speed data obtained by CFD in the typhoon evaluation model. Moreover, it provides a reliable reference guide for future urban microlevel studies.