Mapping Flood Disadvantage in Scotland 2015: Methodology Report

1. About this report

The aim of this report is to describe the methods applied in developing the flood disadvantage dataset for Scotland 2015. It is intended for decision and policy makers and researchers wishing to understand, replicate and amend the social vulnerability to flooding and flood disadvantage assessment.

This document accompanies other deliverables of the 'Mapping Flood Disadvantage in Scotland 2015' project, including:

• The main report, presenting the key findings of the disadvantage assessment for Scotland and exploring the findings and their understanding in more detail through three case studies;
• Interactive maps of social vulnerability to flooding and flood disadvantage;
• The spatial dataset providing information on flood disadvantage with regard to different types of flooding and for various return periods, as well as the disaggregated underlying indicators used in the assessment;
• The dataset compiling the indicators and indices (in a spreadsheet format) accompanied by a short, user-friendly guide, directed at those who may not have a technical or statistical background;
• Recommendations report; and
• Research findings report summarising the headline messages.

This report has been compiled to enable either direct replication of the analysis or to support analysis for an amended set of indicators as new knowledge and data on social vulnerability emerges. The report discusses in an open manner the caveats and uncertainties associated with the data and methods used and suggests some actions to address them.

This report is organised into 8 sections:

• Section 2 explains the main principles of the approach to the assessment of flood disadvantage in Scotland. It outlines the conceptual framework applied and explains the area-based approach and its advantages and disadvantages.
• Section 3 discusses the spatial units used for the disadvantage assessment and introduces the datasets used as sources of information on factors affecting vulnerability.
• In section 4, the selection of the indicators of social vulnerability to flooding is described, followed by an explanation of the processing of the indicators.
• Section 5 focuses on the hazard-exposure element of the assessment. It presents the flood hazard data used and outlines how the number of households and people potentially exposed to flood risk was calculated.
• Section 6 describes how the indices were calculated and presented on maps.
• Section 7 briefly discusses other approaches that can be used to assess social vulnerability to flooding.
• Section 8 provides recommendations for future assessments of social vulnerability to flooding and flood disadvantage.