• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Vulnerability and Risk Factors due to Tropical Cyclones in Coastal Cities of Baja California Sur, Mexico
  • Contributor: Marín-Monroy, Elvia Aida; Hernández-Trejo, Víctor; Romero-Vadillo, Eleonora; Ivanova-Boncheva, Antonina
  • Published: MDPI AG, 2020
  • Published in: Climate, 8 (2020) 12, Seite 144
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.3390/cli8120144
  • ISSN: 2225-1154
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:p>Coastal cities have seen an unprecedented growth with regional settlements due to development activities; that is why measures are needed to mitigate risk of adverse events such as tropical cyclones. Baja California Sur, a state known as a relevant ecological and tourist region, includes destinations such as Cabo San Lucas and La Paz, impacted yearly by tropical cyclones, so it is important to design contingency plans and provide available information to the residents. Los Cabos municipality has the highest population growth rate and its inhabitants are more susceptible to adverse events; despite this, there were no indicators of social and ecological vulnerability to risk effects of tropical cyclones. The objective of this research is to calculate the socio-environmental vulnerability of households through an index to identify risk factors. We have obtained a classification according to levels of vulnerability, and the results have shown that 74% of the households are high on the vulnerability scale, 21% of households are moderately vulnerable and only the remaining 5% of households are less vulnerable. In conclusion, the devastating effects of hydrometeorological events were mainly due to a lack of knowledge regarding such events among inhabitants.</jats:p>
  • Access State: Open Access