IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i3p2303-d1047768.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Providing an Integrated Vulnerability Assessment Indicator System (VAIS) to Measure the Spatial Vulnerability of Areas near Seveso Establishments in Thessaloniki (Greece)

Author

Listed:
  • Spyridoula Kakia

    (Department of Spatial Planning and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541-24 Thessaloniki, Greece)

  • Georgia Pozoukidou

    (Department of Spatial Planning and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541-24 Thessaloniki, Greece)

  • Dimitra G. Vagiona

    (Department of Spatial Planning and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541-24 Thessaloniki, Greece)

Abstract

The most efficient way to reduce damage and losses in metropolitan areas with complex functions that are exposed to disaster risks is to reduce their vulnerability, which necessitates an assessment of the urban system’s vulnerability. Regarding the areas located near Seveso establishments, they are characterized by high levels of vulnerability, both spatially and sectorally, as they present an increased risk due to the possible occurrence of large-scale industrial accidents. In this study, a vulnerability assessment indicator system (VAIS) that assesses the vulnerability presented in the areas located near Seveso facilities was proposed. The VAIS consisted of social, environmental and spatial indicators, and an assessment of the indicators was carried out by collecting the appropriate data. The study area is located in the western part of Thessaloniki and includes the Seveso site and the adjacent municipal districts. Prioritization of the examined municipal districts based on their overall vulnerability was carried out using multicriteria analysis methods. The results showed that there was a convergence among the three categories of vulnerability (social, environmental and spatial) in the areas that presented the highest vulnerability. The MD of Kalochori (MD7) was the most vulnerable MD in the study, while the less vulnerable ones varied depending on the vulnerability category (social, environmental or spatial) considered each time. The proposed methodology may prove to be a highly useful tool in decision-making processes when used by the relevant authorities who are qualified to define and implement a site-specific security management system.

Suggested Citation

  • Spyridoula Kakia & Georgia Pozoukidou & Dimitra G. Vagiona, 2023. "Providing an Integrated Vulnerability Assessment Indicator System (VAIS) to Measure the Spatial Vulnerability of Areas near Seveso Establishments in Thessaloniki (Greece)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-18, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:3:p:2303-:d:1047768
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/3/2303/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/3/2303/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mathew C. Schmidtlein & Roland C. Deutsch & Walter W. Piegorsch & Susan L. Cutter, 2008. "A Sensitivity Analysis of the Social Vulnerability Index," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 1099-1114, August.
    2. Dimitra G. Vagiona, 2021. "Comparative Multicriteria Analysis Methods for Ranking Sites for Solar Farm Deployment: A Case Study in Greece," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-23, December.
    3. Camelia Sabina Botezan & Andrei Radovici & Iulia Ajtai, 2021. "The Challenge of Social Vulnerability Assessment in the Context of Land Use Changes for Sustainable Urban Planning—Case Studies: Developing Cities in Romania," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-26, December.
    4. Opricovic, Serafim & Tzeng, Gwo-Hshiung, 2004. "Compromise solution by MCDM methods: A comparative analysis of VIKOR and TOPSIS," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(2), pages 445-455, July.
    5. Thomas L. Saaty, 2005. "The Analytic Hierarchy and Analytic Network Processes for the Measurement of Intangible Criteria and for Decision-Making," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis: State of the Art Surveys, chapter 0, pages 345-405, Springer.
    6. Susan L. Cutter & Bryan J. Boruff & W. Lynn Shirley, 2003. "Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 84(2), pages 242-261, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yi Peng, 2015. "Regional earthquake vulnerability assessment using a combination of MCDM methods," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 234(1), pages 95-110, November.
    2. Gainbi Park & Zengwang Xu, 2022. "The constituent components and local indicator variables of social vulnerability index," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 110(1), pages 95-120, January.
    3. Yong-Ling Zhang & Wen-Jiao You, 2014. "Social vulnerability to floods: a case study of Huaihe River Basin," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 71(3), pages 2113-2125, April.
    4. Styliani Karamountzou & Dimitra G. Vagiona, 2023. "Suitability and Sustainability Assessment of Existing Onshore Wind Farms in Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-21, January.
    5. Thomas L. Saaty & Daji Ergu, 2015. "When is a Decision-Making Method Trustworthy? Criteria for Evaluating Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 14(06), pages 1171-1187, November.
    6. Navdeep Agrawal & Laxmi Gupta & Jagabandhu Dixit, 2021. "Assessment of the Socioeconomic Vulnerability to Seismic Hazards in the National Capital Region of India Using Factor Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-19, August.
    7. Nicolás C. Bronfman & Paula B. Repetto & Nikole Guerrero & Javiera V. Castañeda & Pamela C. Cisternas, 2021. "Temporal evolution in social vulnerability to natural hazards in Chile," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 107(2), pages 1757-1784, June.
    8. Pedro Pinto Santos & Alexandre Oliveira Tavares & Paula Freire & Ana Rilo, 2018. "Estuarine flooding in urban areas: enhancing vulnerability assessment," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 93(1), pages 77-95, September.
    9. Mar Llorente-Marrón & Montserrat Díaz-Fernández & Paz Méndez-Rodríguez & Rosario González Arias, 2020. "Social Vulnerability, Gender and Disasters. The Case of Haiti in 2010," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-21, April.
    10. Séverine Deguen & Mary Amuzu & Valentin Simoncic & Wahida Kihal-Talantikite, 2022. "Exposome and Social Vulnerability: An Overview of the Literature Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-16, March.
    11. Yang Zhou & Ning Li & Wenxiang Wu & Jidong Wu & Peijun Shi, 2014. "Local Spatial and Temporal Factors Influencing Population and Societal Vulnerability to Natural Disasters," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(4), pages 614-639, April.
    12. Matthias Garschagen & Deepal Doshi & Jonathan Reith & Michael Hagenlocher, 2021. "Global patterns of disaster and climate risk—an analysis of the consistency of leading index-based assessments and their results," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 1-19, November.
    13. Farnaz Yarveysi & Atieh Alipour & Hamed Moftakhari & Keighobad Jafarzadegan & Hamid Moradkhani, 2023. "Block-level vulnerability assessment reveals disproportionate impacts of natural hazards across the conterminous United States," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Justin Pence & Ian Miller & Tatsuya Sakurahara & James Whitacre & Seyed Reihani & Ernie Kee & Zahra Mohaghegh, 2019. "GIS‐Based Integration of Social Vulnerability and Level 3 Probabilistic Risk Assessment to Advance Emergency Preparedness, Planning, and Response for Severe Nuclear Power Plant Accidents," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(6), pages 1262-1280, June.
    15. Ch. Giannakidou & D. Diakoulaki & C. D. Memos, 2019. "Implementing a Flood Vulnerability Index in urban coastal areas with industrial activity," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 97(1), pages 99-120, May.
    16. Mohammad Abdul Quader & Amanat Ullah Khan & Matthieu Kervyn, 2017. "Assessing Risks from Cyclones for Human Lives and Livelihoods in the Coastal Region of Bangladesh," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-26, July.
    17. Nikole Guerrero & Marta Contreras & Alondra Chamorro & Carolina Martínez & Tomás Echaveguren, 2023. "Social vulnerability in Chile: challenges for multi-scale analysis and disaster risk reduction," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 117(3), pages 3067-3102, July.
    18. Alice Barreca & Rocco Curto & Diana Rolando, 2018. "Housing Vulnerability and Property Prices: Spatial Analyses in the Turin Real Estate Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-20, August.
    19. Novak, D.C. & Sullivan, J.F. & Sentoff, K. & Dowds, J., 2020. "A framework to guide strategic disinvestment in roadway infrastructure considering social vulnerability," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 436-451.
    20. Alexandre Oliveira Tavares & José Leandro Barros & Angela Santos, 2017. "Multidimensional Approach for Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment: Framing the Territorial Impacts in Two Municipalities in Portugal," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(4), pages 788-811, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:3:p:2303-:d:1047768. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.