Measuring and mapping the flood vulnerability based on land-use patterns: a case study of Beijing, China

In recently years, flood disasters have produced immense economical and ecological damages in worldwide, particularly in the developing cities. The increasing damages contribute to “vulnerability” that illustrates which areas are vulnerable to what and why. Therefore, researching vulnerability is an essential and invaluable tool for helping the policy makers to identify the vulnerable people and hot-spots in advance, and to design and implement effective preparedness strategies. In this paper, using the example of Beijing, we propose a quantitative model for measuring flood vulnerability based on land-use patterns which is one of the key variables affected flood vulnerability. By combining the flood hazard characteristic “inundation depth”, a series of flood vulnerability maps demonstrate differential flood vulnerability of flood-prone areas at regional level with the approach of remote sensing and GIS techniques. These maps detect and show the distribution characteristics of vulnerable hot-spots and reveal challenges that the public faced when living in the flood-prone areas.