The buildup and assessment of environmental indices for storm induced disaster prone areas

In recent years, global warming has resulted in serious extreme climate events. Natural disasters occur more frequently world widely, and the corresponding impacts are more and more serious, for example of the tragedy of Hsiaolin Village, Kaohsiung due to the impact of Typhoon Morakot in 2009. In this research, the study areas are primarily those who were suffering from typhoon storm-related disasters and are characterized with high disaster potential. A series of field reconnaissance works were conducted in flood and slopeland disaster-prone areas in Kaohsiung city in order to analyze the causative factors of the hazards. There are ninety eight communities and ninety nine villages under investigation for flood and slopeland disaster potential analyses. With the environmental index buildup and assessment, the districts of Shanlin, Namaxia, Meinong, Maolin, Taoyuan and Liugui are categorized as high slopeland disaster-prone districts, and the causative factors are existence of serious landslides and poor vegetated bare slopes. The districts of Yongan, Mituo, Gangshan, Qiaotou, Nanzi, Dashe and Renwu are classified as high flood disaster-prone districts, and the causes are abundant rainfall and poor drainage system. The results obtained from this study will contribute to keep abreast of high disaster-prone areas and to promote the corresponding disaster prevention and preparedness tasks.