Assessment of coastal vulnerability to sea level rise of Bolinao, Pangasinan using remote sensing and geographic information systems

• Main Authors: Reyes, Sheryl Rose C., Blanco, Ariel C.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2012
• Subjects: Sea level—Philippines—Bolinao (Pangasinan); Climatic changes; Remote sensing; Geographic information systems; Environmental Studies
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/8798
• Institution: De La Salle University

A number of studies assessing the vulnerability of Southeast Asia to climate change have classified the Phillipines as one of the vulnerable countres in the region. Bolinao, Pangasinan is a municipality located in northwestern Luzon, situated in the western part of LIngayen Gulf and is bounded on the north and west by the South China Sea (West Philippines). Recent studies have verified the varying trends in sea level across the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), which is considered as one of the largest, semi-enclosed marginal seas in the norhwest Pacific Ocean. Three barangays (villages) were included in the study: (1) Luciente 1.0, (2) Concordia and (3) Germinal. The Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index (SVI) was computed based on population, age, gender, employment, source of income and household size, which were gathered through a qualitative survey in the selected barangays. The Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) described the physical vulnerability of these coastal communities based on recorded sea level anomalies and significant wave heights of multiple satellite altimetry missions, coastal topography derived from the 25-m SRTM digital elevation model (DEM), bathymetry from WorldView-2 and additional elevation data from terrestrial laser scanning surveys. The research utilized merged satellite altimetry data downloaded from the Radar Altimetry Database System (RADS), which covered the period from 1991-2010. The SVI and CVI were calculated and evaluated in ArcGIS. The SVI and CVI were integrated to determine the Total Vulnerability Index (TVI), which characterized the vulnerability of the three barangays in five classes, from very lov to very high vulnerability.