Disaster Management on a Regional Scale: Knowledge Platform toward Overall Hotspot Identification

As climate change intensifies, natural events are following suit, potentially disrupting the functioning of cities. It is therefore crucial to identify the interrelationships between different natural events when building more resilient cities, as these events present potential catastrophes upon impact. This study is aimed at building a knowledge platform for the identification of overall risk hotspot areas in the Abruzzo region in Italy. The Abruzzo region is one of the many regions in Italy that is vulnerable to multiple disaster risks. To build this knowledge platform, we used the multi-risk assessment concept to identify the risk hotspot areas of interacting disaster indicators. Our methodology was based on the risk matrix method to assess the interaction between the hazard and the exposure indicators. We overlayed both indicators in a geographic information system environment to estimate these hotspots using graphical analysis. The study results clearly show that risk hotspots are concentrated in urban areas with high population density. Nearly half of the population lives in these areas. It is important to note that risk hotspots are not isolated in urban areas. They often co-occur with multiple risks, which is useful for determining strategic intervention measures to implement for disaster risk reduction. The multi-risk hotspot map developed from this research is invaluable for planning risk reduction measures. It is essential for supporting decision-making and emergency response planning in the event of impact from hazards that could cause cascading disasters.