Coastal vulnerability analysis of Bangladesh coast using fuzzy logic based geospatial techniques

Bangladesh coast is recognized as one of the hotspots of several coastal hazards like coastal flood, sea level rise, increased tropical cyclone occurrence etc. To understand the problem followed by necessary coastal management recommendation, an integrated coastal vulnerability index i.e., Composite Vulnerability Index (CVI) was developed for the coastal region applying geospatial technique. Three sub-indices, namely, Coastal Characteristics Vulnerability sub-index (CCVI), Coastal Forcing Vulnerability Sub-index (CFVI) and Socio-economic vulnerability sub-index (SEVI) were separately estimated and combined to determine the CVI. Since, the classical set theory of traditional vulnerability classification is inadequate to express the natural variability of vulnerability at continuous scale, this study offered a framework of vulnerability representation using fuzzy set theory. The approach was effective to handle the…