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Simulation of physical and socioeconomic factors of vulnerability to cyclones and storm surges using GIS: a case study

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The objective of the present study is to simulate the physical and socioeconomic factors of human vulnerability to tropical cyclones and storm surges at the household level in existing and changing status of households. The primary data were collected from a cyclone prone coastal area in Bangladesh, through structured questionnaire and GPS survey, key informants interviews and field observations. In order to simulate the physical and socioeconomic factors geographical information systems based Structured Query Language (SQL) query has been used. The study simulated the physical and socioeconomic factors of human vulnerability to tropical cyclones and storm surges on the basis of collected data through pre-designed SQL query. The study found the number of most vulnerable households under existing conditions and how much it will be afterward of a favourable or adverse change of the factors of vulnerability associated with households. The major findings of the study unveil that the socioeconomic and physical factors of human vulnerability have important function to determine the household’s level of vulnerability to the cyclone induced disaster. It has been demonstrated that the degree of vulnerability of households is changed with its physical and socioeconomic status. This study provides a conceptual model for assessing and simulating vulnerability to other natural hazards like floods, droughts, riverbank erosions and so forth. This study highlights that the households’ intrinsic vulnerable conditions are responsible for its defencelessness to the hazards and the reduction of vulnerability is the first measure of integrated and sustainable disaster management in the coastal Bangladesh.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Mr. Chandan Roy, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh and the anonymous peer reviewers and the editor of the Geojournal, for their valuable comments on earlier versions of this paper. Authors are also in debt to the villagers of the study area for providing essential information during the field survey.

Funding

This study was not funded by any sponsor, funding agency or other. This study was conducted using authors’ own fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Environment, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, 3114, Bangladesh

    Md. Nazir Hossain

  2. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, 6205, Bangladesh

    Shitangsu Kumar Paul

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  1. Md. Nazir Hossain
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Correspondence to Md. Nazir Hossain.

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Research involving human participants and/or animals

We jointly conducted this study. The questionnaire survey was conducted among the sample respondents of the study area and the respondents were household heads. Relevant information also collected from key informants.

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Hossain, M.N., Paul, S.K. Simulation of physical and socioeconomic factors of vulnerability to cyclones and storm surges using GIS: a case study. GeoJournal 82, 23–41 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-015-9668-9

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