Flood vulnerability assessment using MOVE framework: a case study of the northern part of district Peshawar, Pakistan

Climate variability and changes in contemporary society such as increasing population, poor urbanization and expansion of residential areas are increasing the vulnerability and frequency of flooding hazards in Pakistan, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province. Minimizing flood vulnerability needs an understanding of the factors that drive vulnerability to flooding hazard. The present study was conducted in the flood-prone areas of Peshawar, a district of KP, to evaluate flood vulnerability of the population using the Method for the Improvement of Vulnerability Assessment in Europe. Following this framework, an extensive literature review was conducted to develop relevant proxy indicators. Structured questionnaires were used for household surveys to collect data from 210 households in seven selected sites through simple random sampling method. The vulnerability factors, i.e., exposure, susceptibility and resilience, as well as the overall vulnerability were calculated and compared using ArcGIS tools. Results show that the overall vulnerability and the factor vulnerability of the studied sites were very high. Susceptibility and exposure factors were found to greatly influence vulnerability, and communities had low resilience in the face of flooding hazard. Addressing these indicators properly in developing strategies can reduce vulnerability and increase capacity of the communities to cope with floods in the future. Additionally, the government and disaster management agencies can play a significant role in minimizing the vulnerability to floods by strengthening physical and socioeconomic capacities through education, training and awareness about precautionary and mitigation measures.