Flood and heat hazards in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile and the socio-economics of exposure

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Kerstin Krellenberg - , Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)
  • Annemarie Mueller - , Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)
  • Anke Schwarz - , Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)
  • Rene Hoefer - , University of Freiburg (Author)
  • Juliane Welz - , Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)

Abstract

In Santiago de Chile, the combination of recent urbanization patterns, the growing demand for land, and climate change has created challenges, notably in terms of the amplification of hazard generation and hazard exposure. This paper analyses the changes in land use/land cover, their impact on current flood and heat hazards, and the consequences for dwelling exposure. It adopts a hazard and exposure assessment approach to flood and heat hazard that allows for evaluation of the interlinkages and consequences of interweaving processes of urbanization and climate change in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile. The results clearly show that loss of green spaces and agricultural land to built-up areas goes hand in hand with the loss of important infiltration, cooling and retention areas, all of which leads to greater hazard exposure. The paper furthermore analyses the exposed population in terms of their material housing conditions. Surprisingly, those who are more likely to live in hazard-prone areas cannot be described exclusively as "the poor", albeit there are striking differences between flood and heat exposure. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)86-95
Number of pages10
JournalApplied Geography
Volume38
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2013
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

Scopus 84871747138
ORCID /0000-0001-7043-4670/work/167705174

Keywords

Keywords

  • Flood hazard generation, Heat hazard generation, Hazard exposure, Housing conditions, Santiago de Chile, Distribution patterns, AIR-POLLUTION, URBAN, VULNERABILITY