Developing a Household Flood Vulnerability Index of Malaysia for the Terengganu State: Linking Vulnerability and Risk of Floods for Kuala Terengganu and Kemaman Districts

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to construct a household flood vulnerability index of Malaysia (MyFVI) via using readily available indicators, measure the flood vulnerability levels and develop a framework linking the effect of flood vulnerability on flood risk among affected households locally. Specifically, the multidimensional FVI methodology is adopted to fit in for some households within the Kuala Terengganu and Kemaman districts in Terengganu. Among others, both Kuala Terengganu and Kemaman are revealed to be highly vulnerable to the environmental dimension of flood vulnerability. In the state setting, Terengganu is disclosed to be highly vulnerable to the environmental and social dimensions of flood vulnerability with associated FVI values of 0.722 and 0.601, respectively. Also, the regression results can have significant implications for helping to mitigate the environmental and social vulnerabilities to floods, thus rendering to the flood risk reduction among affected households at the state level. Therefore, one policy recommendation is that proper measures such as undertaking improvement works of drainage network with supervision are necessary in order to increase the households’ environmental resilience to floods.