Participate! - Survey on floods vulnerability index : UNESCO - IHE

Guest Post by: Stefania Balica, PhD student, Hydraulic Engineering and River Basin Development UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education Stefania Balica who is doing PhD research at UNESCO-IHE, regarding Flood Vulnerability Index writes in with a request to contribute towards a related survey. "At this point of my research, I am trying to find out which are the most important indicators of the flood vulnerability for each spatial scale by creating a poll, and I would like to request your help in order to find out these indicators. The questionnaire will be applied to more than 200 persons with different backgrounds and cultures. It consists in merely filling up the questionnaire. The questionnaire contains three scales and will take around 10 minutes and you can find it on: http://www.unesco-ihe-fvi.org -> Poll/Questionnaire -> The three scales at the bottom of the page. An account can be created before accessing the page (by clicking on Login), in order to save your poll/questionnaire on your account so you can access/modify it at any time (when connected). Vulnerability is considered as the extent of harm, which can be expected under certain conditions of exposure, susceptibility and resilience. Vulnerability is a relative concept; it depends on the differential access of the people, buildings and infrastructure to the social, economic, environmental and institutional sub-systems, components. The socio component relates to the presence of human beings and encompasses issues related to e.g. deficiencies in mobility of human beings associated with gender, age, or disabilities. The economic components are related to income or issues which are inherent to economics that are predisposed to be affected. The environmental component continues to relate to activities such as afforestation, deforestation, urbanization and industrialization have enhanced environmental degradation, creating effects like climate variability and sea level rise, increasing the potential occurrence of floods. The physical component relates to the predisposition of infrastructure to be damaged by a flooding event. The main reasons to divide the FVI into three different scales are: - Vulnerability is geographically and socially differentiated. - Spatial heterogeneity results in more accurate description of reality; - Political and administrative division can facilitate or impede the availability of data, according to certain scales. The results can be more applicable and understandable through accumulation of knowledge of how vulnerability is distributed and how it is developing throughout the world. Choose the answer which best explains your preference and check it. The survey is for: River Basin Scale SubCatchment Scale Urban Area Scale The link to the survey page: http://www.unesco-ihe-fvi.org/