Proactive Risk Management and integrated knowledge for governance of urban systems: Urban Vulnerability in the case of Gran Santo Domingo

The paper is part of the final outcomes of the the EU research project “Estudio de la Amenaza Sísmica y Vulnerabilidad Física del Gran Santo Domingo”, as produced by the Italian partenership (Istituto di Ricerca su Innovazione e Servizi per lo Sviluppo, CNR-IRISS). The paper discusses the application of the multi-criteria approach to identify urban vulnerability with respect to seismic risk. Starting from the case study of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the Italian research team provided a GIS-based design approach aimed at managing vulnerability as whole (whether physical, morphological, or social, and functional). The study depiscts and tests a wide range of indicators aimed at mapping seiemic vulnerabilty at urban district scale, according to both the probability of seismic event (the Haiti earthquake of 2010), and the site-specific vulnerability of the city. The research has been carried out with the specialistic supports of the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières -BRGM (Fr), and with the Istituto Geologico y Minero de Espana (IGME), who produced the seiemic micro-zoning mapping of the city. The GIS-based design approach, as well as the multi-criteria analysis made by the CNR research team, was here tested as innovative risk reduction planning method able at prevent and prepare to severe hazards.