| dc.description.abstract | Climate change projections indicate that extreme precipitation events will increase in the future,
leading to increased pluvial flooding and flood hazards. While there is increasing attention toward
flood risk analysis and adaptation, pluvial flood risk is still only marginally addressed in research.
Additionally, urbanization intensifies the frequency of flooding in cities because of a reduction in
permeable surfaces. In the face of climate hazards, multiple forms of climate injustices in today’s cities
are well-documented and are usually faced by marginalized and low-income communities. Despite this
knowledge, research indicates that traditional urban (flood) adaptation policies are most often
founded on exclusionary and technocratic approaches that tend to neglect the structural causes of
social vulnerabilities. Intersectionality theory can help to uncover and address these multidimensional
levels of vulnerability and can be utilized to inform such adaptation measures. Hence, this research
will focus on pluvial flooding impacts in European urban areas with an additional focus on
intersectional social vulnerabilities relating to climate justice issues within pluvial flood protection
planning. Informed by intersectionality theory, this research presents an intersectional vulnerability
index (IVI) to pluvial flooding in a European urban context. The IVI is built around 10 dimensions of
social vulnerabilities (education, housing, special needs populations, economic status, gender,
nationality, family structure, age, people without social networks, and infrastructure dependence). The
IVI is then computed into a readily transferable composite index (CI).
The index is applied to two case studies and helps to unveil the most socially vulnerable districts and
compounding social vulnerabilities of people through statistical analysis. Paired with an urban flood
exposure dataset, districts are being identified that experience relatively high social vulnerabilities
combined with relatively high pluvial flood exposure levels. The paper further discusses pluvial flooding
and social vulnerabilities in a climate justice context, identifying structures of intersecting
discriminations and resulting vulnerabilities and disproportionality in flood impacts. The thesis
concludes with recommendations to enhance social justice within FRM. | |
