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<p>Climate change presents an escalating threat to urban environments, where dense populations, aging infrastructure, and entrenched social inequities amplify exposure to climate hazards. Urban centers face compound risks such as flooding and extreme heat, disproportionately impacting socioeconomically marginalized communities. Despite growing recognition of these challenges, there remains a critical need for integrated, spatially detailed assessments to inform equitable adaptation strategies. This study presents the first application of the Urban Adaptation Assessment (UAA) framework in Louisville, Kentucky, integrating fine-scale spatial data within a Geographic Information Systems framework to evaluate vulnerability to these dual hazards. A multidimensional approach incorporating environmental exposure, social sensitivity, and adaptive capacity was implemented with equal and entropy-based weighting schemes to examine the robustness of spatial risk patterns. Results reveal a pronounced convergence of flood and heat vulnerabilities within historically underserved urban areas, where infrastructural deficits, economic precarity, and limited access to healthcare intensify climate risk. Spatial autocorrelation analysis (Global Moran’s I) confirms statistically significant clustering of high-risk areas (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05), indicating that vulnerability patterns are spatially concentrated rather than randomly distributed. Notably, critical infrastructure such as hospitals and fire stations are disproportionately located within high-risk zones, potentially constraining emergency response capacity. These findings highlight the intersection of environmental hazards, infrastructure disparities, and social inequities at a granular spatial scale, providing a robust, policy-relevant foundation for advancing equitable urban adaptation strategies.</p>

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Integrating GIS and the Urban Adaptation Assessment Framework for Climate Vulnerability and Resilience in Louisville, Kentucky

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月17日

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  • Joyceline Adom Frimpong,
  • Qiaofeng Zhang,
  • Collins Oduro

摘要

Climate change presents an escalating threat to urban environments, where dense populations, aging infrastructure, and entrenched social inequities amplify exposure to climate hazards. Urban centers face compound risks such as flooding and extreme heat, disproportionately impacting socioeconomically marginalized communities. Despite growing recognition of these challenges, there remains a critical need for integrated, spatially detailed assessments to inform equitable adaptation strategies. This study presents the first application of the Urban Adaptation Assessment (UAA) framework in Louisville, Kentucky, integrating fine-scale spatial data within a Geographic Information Systems framework to evaluate vulnerability to these dual hazards. A multidimensional approach incorporating environmental exposure, social sensitivity, and adaptive capacity was implemented with equal and entropy-based weighting schemes to examine the robustness of spatial risk patterns. Results reveal a pronounced convergence of flood and heat vulnerabilities within historically underserved urban areas, where infrastructural deficits, economic precarity, and limited access to healthcare intensify climate risk. Spatial autocorrelation analysis (Global Moran’s I) confirms statistically significant clustering of high-risk areas (p < 0.05), indicating that vulnerability patterns are spatially concentrated rather than randomly distributed. Notably, critical infrastructure such as hospitals and fire stations are disproportionately located within high-risk zones, potentially constraining emergency response capacity. These findings highlight the intersection of environmental hazards, infrastructure disparities, and social inequities at a granular spatial scale, providing a robust, policy-relevant foundation for advancing equitable urban adaptation strategies.