Identification and classification of urban micro-vulnerabilities in tsunami evacuation routes for the city of Iquique, Chile

Abstract

Many coastal cities around the world are threatened by tsunamis; some of these events have caused great impacts in recent times. The loss of human lives during these events is the main cause of concern of the authorities, and evacuation planning has been recognized as one of the best tools for safeguarding the population. In this context, urban design appears to be critical for the execution of prompt and efficient evacuation processes to safe areas; however, evacuation assessment has been traditionally carried out at a large urban scale, mostly taking into consideration urban morphology and connectivity. In the present work, urban spaces available for tsunami evacuation are explored in detail by developing a methodology to identify and classify urban micro-vulnerabilities that may reduce the capacity of the evacuation routes and hinder evacuees’ safety. The method is applied to the Chilean city of Iquique, affected by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2014.