Mapping Flood Risk and Vulnerability in the Lower Mekong Basin

Flooding is a major cause of fatalities and infrastructure damage worldwide. In 2003, 200 major floods caused more than $8 billion in damages and more than 4,000 deaths worldwide.

In Southeast Asia, the Mekong River Basin has been extremely hard hit by floods in recent years including 2000, 2001, and 2002. Collectively, these events caused hundreds of deaths and approximately $1 billion in infrastructure damage annually.

The Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) has developed and applied methodologies to portray and assess spatial variability of flood vulnerability and its associated impacts on the people and infrastructure of the Mekong River region. This map illustrates preliminary results for major components of the Vulnerability-Exposure-Sensitivity-Resilience model that was implemented at one-kilometer resolution to identify flood vulnerability on a regional scale. The PDC fosters disaster-resistant communities through science, information, and technology in the Asia Pacific region and beyond.