Mapping Flood Vulnerability

Floods have a high impact in densely populated areas, especially when strategic infrastructure is affected. There are various human and territorial factors that influence an area's vulnerability to flooding. Intensive agricultural activity and large urbanised areas are examples of such human factors, while the soil's ability to absorb water is a major territorial factor. A quantification of flood vulnerability can be created by combining numerical indicators for the various factors into a single index number that is easy to interpret for decision-makers. GIS tools can easily be applied to calculate these indicators from various open spatial data sources, offering a low-cost methodology to produce vulnerability maps.