SEAREG Vulnerability assessment and experiences from the Finnish case study areas

1. SEAREG Vulnerability assessment and experiences from the Finnish case study areas 2. SEAREG Gdansk Case study meeting, Gdansk, 28.10.2004 Heidi Virkki, GTK, Espoo, Finland

2. Vulnerability assessment (VA)  Experiences from Itä-Uusimaa study area  What we want from Gdansk TODAY’S TOPICS

3. What is vulnerability? The degree of fragility of a person, a group, a community or an area towards defined hazards Set of conditions and processes resulting from physical, social, economical and environmental factors, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards Vulnerability is determined by the potential of a community to react and withstand a disaster, e.g. its emergency facilities and disaster organisation structure (coping capacity) (Schmidt-Thomé and Jarva, 2003) VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT (VA)

4. Identifying the hotspots of the study area e.g. a beach, houses, oil refinery, underground infrastructure, water supply etc.  Impact matrix as a part of the VA

5. Coping capacity refers to the capacity of an stakeholder, organisation or region, to withstand and cope with the effects of the future sea level rise such as inundation and flooding. - Helps the studied area to understand where its current strengths and weaknesses are. Identifying relevant key stakeholders for highest impact hotspots. - e.g. planners, decision makers, rescue department, local waterworks, environmental experts, private households, oil refinery etc. Coping Capacity As Part of the VA

6. Awareness Knowledge Motivation Resources Coping Capacity of Stakeholders

7. Co-operation Strength of institutions Trust in decision makers Guidance of planning Public awareness VA is a tool to support local and regional decision makers in analysing and interpreting the impacts of sea level rise on a study areas Coping Capacity of the Institutions

8. The Finnish Case Study Areas

9. Hotspots in Porvoo Housing by the riverbank Contaminated industrial shores The ground water area in Sannainen Hotspots in Loviisa Housing by the Rantatie road The railway in use of the Valko harbour The park at the farest end of the Loviisa bay Experiences From ITÄ-UUSIMAA Study Area

10. Hotspots in Loviisa Max.flood event + high case scenario Max. flood event

11. City planners and regional planners Rescue department Local water works Local environmental experts and the Uusimaa regional environmental centre Road- and traffic department Private persons with property in the risk zone, also city councillors Interviewees in Itä-Uusimaa Region

12. Shores are wanted places for houses and summer cottages in Finland in general Hazards related to the oil refinery in Porvoo and the nuclear power plant in Loviisa raise more concern in Itä-Uusimaa The long time scale (100 years) makes sea level rise still an abstract hazard Guidance of planning quite strong and sea level is taken into account in planning Interesting Results From Itä-Uusimaa Study Area

13. What is the level of (local official) knowledge about the type, location, and potential of hazards (sea-level rise & flooding)? Does development already exist to reduce the potential (land use planning and mitigation)? How high is community awareness of the hazard?  Difficulty of avoidance of hazard-prone land use Are plans and resources available for mitigation? What is the planners interest? What kind of social, economical and political resistance is there towards influence on land use? Planning capacity assessment (examples)

14. Thank you for your attention!heidi.virkki@uta.fihttp://www.gtk.fi/projects/seareg/