Remote sensing and GIS-based assessment of coastal vulnerability of Bolinao, Pangasinan to sea level rise

• Main Authors: Reyes, Sheryl Rose C., Blanco, Ariel C.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2010
• Subjects: Sea level—Philippines—Bolinao (Pangasinan); Climatic changes; Environmental Studies
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/8797
• Institution: De La Salle University

Recent studies have classsified the Philippines as one of the many Asian countries that are highly vulnerable to the major effects of climate change. A number of investigations using satellite altimetry data verified the varying trends in sea level across the South China Sea, which is one of the largest semi-enclosed marginal seas in the northwest Pacific Ocean, Bolinao, Pangasinan, a province situated in nortwestern Luzon and comprised of several coastal communities, is bounded on the west by the South China Sea. An integrated vulnerability assessment is carried out to quantify the degree of risks and the possible effects of sea level rise to these coastal communities. Three barangays (villages), were examined in this study, namely, Luciente 1.0, Germinal and Concordia. The socioeconomic vulnerability is represented by the Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index (CVI), which is calculated based on population, age, gender, employment, source of income and household size collected through a qualitative survey. The physical vulnerability is described by the Coastal Vulnerability Index (CV1), which is computed based on recorded sea level anomalies from multiple satellite altimetry missions, coastal topography extracted from high resolution satellite images and terrestrial laser scanner data. , tidal range, significant wave heights and geomorphology. This study utilized merged satellite altimetry data from the ERS-1, ERS-2, ENVISAT, Jason-1, Jason-2 and TOPEX/POSEIDON missions obtained from the RADS database system, where the necessary corrections were applied accordingly. The results of the merged satellite altimetry data analysis, provide a more accurate assessment of sea level trends. The SVI and CVI are calculated by applying weights on the variables and are evaluated in ArcGIS. The SVI and CVI are integrated to obtain the Total Vulnerability Index (TVI), which characterizes the vulnerability of the three barangays in five classes, from very low to very high vulnerabiility.