Project

Hazard Vulnerability and Policy Responses for Coastal Resilience in South Korea

As climate change increasingly threatens coastal communities at risk of sea-level rise and abnormal weather events, many global organizations, national governments, and academics have begun actively researching how to ensure coastal resilience. However, many developing countries are unable to adequately respond to this threat because of a lack of technical ability and resources. Moreover, these top-down approaches result in significant differences in the lives of local communities and their local characteristics.

This research seeks ways of connecting advanced coastal resilience studies to national hazard vulnerability assessments, in order to increase the research efficiency of developing countries and provide primary analysis and assessment methods for hazard vulnerability. It will create a more precise Coastal Hazard Vulnerability Index (CVI) for the Korean coastal line through the careful review of the global indicating systems. Using this (CVI), this project will analyze the Korean coast and its representative communities to understand the needs of locals and reflect their actual lives. The research aims are to 1) verify the proposed CVI on the local scale, and 2) propose future planning directions and coastal designs that embody the existing urban fabric and day-to-day lives of the people.

Sa Min Han

Doctoral Student
Sa Min Han is a doctoral student in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. She has a BA degree in Landscape Architecture from the Seoul National University and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania.