Physical vulnerability assessment using indicators. A methodological framework for natural hazard risk management

Climate change is responsible for increased land and sea temperatures influencing in this way precipitation patterns and consequently the magnitude and frequency of weather related natural disasters. The proposed research presented herein aims at providing a framework and a guideline to promote and offer tools for the assessment of the physical vulnerability and to investigate its relationship and interactions with the resilience of the built environment. The proposed research focuses on buildings located at mountain areas and torrential hazards but it may offer a basis for similar research on other hazard types in other environmental context (coastal, urban etc.). Although physical vulnerability is not a new field of research and in the literature there are many studies that focus on vulnerability issues, there is no standard methodology for its assessment. The most common method for physical vulnerability assessment is the use of vulnerability curves. However, this method bears several drawbacks, such as the extensive data requirements or the lack of consideration of buildings characteristics etc. The proposed research investigates the role of vulnerability indicators (e.g. buildings characteristics) in the physical vulnerability of buildings subject to torrential hazards and propose a new methodology. The objectives of the proposed research are to provide a complete indicator based methodology for the vulnerability assessment for buildings. A new set of indicators will be proposed and a new weighting approach based on existing damage information. The approach will be applied at several case study areas in Austria where data regarding the intensity of torrential hazards and their corresponding damages and costs are available. Additionally, the methodology will be validated in a case study in Switzerland in close collaboration with the University of Bern. The proposed research also aims at making a step further and investigate how physical vulnerability indicators influence the resilience of the built environment and with which indicators can this resilience be expressed. Physical vulnerability maps will be developed based on the physical vulnerability index (PVI). Low cost/high impact solutions are going to be proposed and new damage documentation techniques are going to be anticipated in order to improve data availability and quality in the future. The results and the recommendations are going to be included in a “Guideline for physical vulnerability assessment using indicators”. Following the completion of the proposed research the applicant is expected to have reached the level of qualification required (Habilitation) for the pursuit of a full professorship.