Despite it's economic wealth, the Chinese city was considered to be more exposed to the risk of flooding than much poorer cities, such as Dhaka.

 

As well as considering a city's physical attributes, the study also considers social and economic factors when rating an area's vulnerability.

 

Details of the research appear in the journal Natural Hazards.

 

A team of scientists from the UK and the Netherlands has developed a Coastal¹ City Flood Vulnerability Index (CCFVI), based on exposure, susceptibility and resilience to coastal flooding.

 

Co-author Nigel Wright, from the University of Leeds' School of Civil Engineering, said that current methods tended to be two dimensional.

 

"Very often we look at these sorts of things in a very deterministic way," he explained. 

 

"We look at physical exposure, so if you live by a river you are exposed to the risk of flooding."

 

Prof Wright said that the CCFVI used a range of data, consisting of 19 components².

 

"We still use the physical ones but also economic and social ones, such as how much attention is given by local or national governments to protect citizens and citizens' property through investing in various forms of resilience," he told BBC News.

 

These included the percentage of a city's population living close to the coastline; the amount of time needed for a city to recover from flooding; the amount of uncontrolled development along the coastline, as well as the volume of measures to physically³ prevent floodwater entering a city.

点击收听单词发音