Flood vulnerability assessment in rural and urban informal settlements: case study of Karonga District and Lilongwe City in Malawi

• DOI: 10.1007/s11069-024-06601-5
• Publication Date: 2024-05-24T08:01:20Z
• Authors: Isaac Kadono Mwal...; Mtafu Manda; Cosmo Ngongondo
• Keywords: Natural hazard; Informal Settlements; Human settlement; Vulnerability

Abstract Flood vulnerability assessment (FVA) informs the disaster risk reduction and preparedness process in both rural urban areas. However, many flood-vulnerable regions like Malawi still lack FVA supporting frameworks all phases (pre-trans-post disaster). Partly, this is attributed to of evidence-based studies inform processes. This study was therefore aimed at assessing households’ flood (HFV) informal areas Malawi, using case Traditional Authority (T/A) Kilupula Karonga District (KD) Mtandire Ward Lilongwe City (LC). A household survey used collect data from a sample 545 participants. Vulnerability explored through combination underlying factors (UVFs)-physical-social-economic-environmental cultural with components (VCs)-exposure-susceptibility resilience. The UVFs VCs were agglomerated binomial multiple logit regression model. Variance inflation factor (VIF) check multicollinearity variables HFV determined based on index (FVI). analysed Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), artificial neural network (ANN) STATA. results reveal total average score high (0.62) moderate (0.52) MCA T/A respectively. FVI revealed very enviroexposure (EEFs) ( $$0.9$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0.9</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ) LC $$(0.8$$ <mml:mo>(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.8</mml:mn> KD, followed by ecoresilience (ERFs) (0.8) KD $$(0.6$$ <mml:mn>0.6</mml:mn> physioexposure (PEFs) $$0.5)$$ <mml:mn>0.5</mml:mn> <mml:mo>)</mml:mo> besides 0.6 for combined VCs. concludes that determinants are place settlement, low-risk knowledge, communication accessibility, early warning systems, limited access income heads. recommends an framework should be applied strengthen political, legal, social, economic responsibilities government building resilience communities planning decision-making processes management.