Published Paper

The journal Water Policy has published an article by Sangeun Lee and myself titled "Assessing the vulnerability of different age groups regarding flood fatalities: case study in the Philippines". It is now available online in final form (a previous version was available in May). Although this publication is not open access, full PDF copies are available upon request.

Abstract (adapted to adjust html codes to proper screen coding)
This study aimed to identify age groups vulnerable to flood fatalities and quantify their vulnerability by means of statistical methods. First, the study obtained data of 122 victims directly resulting from five flood disasters in the Philippines over the period 2010–2013 which was used to compare the number of flood fatalities in each age group with the population numbers. The chi-square goodness-of-fit test shows that only one age group, people aged less than and up to 70, was vulnerable to flood fatalities. Vulnerabilities of people aged less than and up to 70 and over 70, respectively, were quantified in terms of mortality, i.e., the ratio of flood fatalities and affected people. This study obtained two lognormal distribution curves moderately describing histograms built with samples on the mortality of the two age groups. Based on probabilistic parameters of the selected lognormal distribution curves, the study concludes that people aged less than and up to 70 have more than three times the vulnerability to the risk of flood fatality than people aged over 70. It is also suggested that the age dependency ratio, which is widely used to consider demographic vulnerability in flood vulnerability studies, should not be applied to the Philippines.

Journal ref: Water Policy, December 2015, 17 (6) 1045-1061
Received: 12 May 2014
Accepted in revised form: 19 February 2015
Published online (uncorrected proof): 13 April 2015
Available online: 17 December 2015
DOI:10.2166/wp.2015.089
Impact Factor 2014: 0.833