3/2/2019 1.

Hazard, vulnerability and risk analysis | Summary

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1. Hazard, vulnerability and risk analysis

This case study is intended to illustrate the meaning of hazard, vulnerability and risk,
using a very simple data set on the national-scale of Colombia (South America). The
occurrence of a disaster depends on two factors:

● hazard: the probability of occurrence of a potentially damaging phenomenon,

● vulnerability: the degree of loss resulting from the occurrence of the phenomenon.

You will first generate a qualitative hazard map by combining several factor maps. Then a
vulnerability map is made. Finally, the hazard and the vulnerability map are combined into
a risk map.

Creation of the hazard map

First, attribute tables are created for

the following input maps: seismic
hazards, landslide hazards, volcanic
hazards, tsunami hazard, beach
erosion/accumulation hazard. To all
classes in these maps, different
weight values are assigned in their
attribute table.

Then, attribute maps of the weight

values are derived from all these maps; these are the first factor maps.

Further, with mapcalc, factor maps are obtained from maps on inundation hazard, rivers,
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3/2/2019 1. Hazard, vulnerability and risk analysis | Summary

and for altitudes above 1000m.

Finally, all factor maps are summed with a mapcalc statement and a hazard map is
obtained. The hazard map is then classified.

Creation of the vulnerability map

First, the population density of each

department (province) in Colombia is
calculated in a table: for each department
the population figure has to be entered
while the area of the departments is
joined from the histogram of the
departmental map. Population density is
then calculated through a simple tabcalc
formula.

Next, attribute tables are created for input maps depicting industrial regions,
concentration of economic activities and main infrastructure. To all classes in these maps,
weight values are entered in their attribute table. Subsequently attribute maps of the
weight values are derived. These are the first factor maps.

In the Colombia table with the population densities, weight values are assigned through a
tabcalc formula; then an attribute map is derived. This is another factor map. All factor

maps are summed with a mapcalc formula and the vulnerability map is obtained. This
vulnerability map is then classified.

Creation of the risk map

A two-dimensional table is created in which for

each combination of hazard classes and
vulnerability classes an output risk class is
assigned.

The two-dimensional table is applied on the

classified hazard map and the classified
vulnerability map, and the risk map is obtained.

Quantification of risks per department

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3/2/2019 1. Hazard, vulnerability and risk analysis | Summary

The Colombia map (with the Colombian departments) is crossed with the Risk map; in the
cross table the number of pixels with high, medium and low risk can be seen for each
Colombian department.

These number of pixels with high risk, medium risk and low risk are joined from the cross
table into three separate columns of table Colombia. Further, the the total number of
pixels per department is joined from the cross table into table Colombia by using a join
with with an aggregation.

Finally, for each province, the percentage of high risk, medium risk and low risk is
calculated with some tabcalc formulas.

For information on this case study, contact:

C.J. van Westen

Department of Earth Systems Analysis,

International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC),

P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The Netherlands.

Tel: +31 53 4 874 263, Fax: +31 53 4 874 336, e-mail: westen@itc.nl

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