Socio-Economic Vulnerability Assessment of The Pahang Community Due to Floods Using GIS

Flood is one of the annual natural disasters that frequently take place not only in Malaysia but also worldwide. Drastic development can cause environmental changes and expose humans to catastrophic incidents. Changes in the quality of the environment can ultimately lead to the risk of flooding. The state of Pahang was one of the zones that suffered from a catastrophic flood that occurred in 2014. Several Pahang districts have indirectly become one of flood-prone areas year after year. This study was conducted to determine the effect of this particular flood event on the social economy of the community in Pekan District, Pahang based on several socio-economic parameters. A total of 290 respondents answered the questionnaire systematically randomly selected in the area around Pekan District. The findings demonstrated that the flooding in the study area had affected the population in several sub-districts of the survey. Generally, statistical analyses indicated that the majority of the community was affected 100% by the flood and indicated that the flood imposed some impact about 67.7% (202) were affected housing, 94.4% (101) were affected by school session closures and working day delayed,74.9% (217) effect to income earning, 47.6% (138) family member more than 3 people effected of a flood. This implies that the relationship between sub-districts with the socioeconomic variables is affected by the flood. Experiences with previous flood events may have also helped the residents to prepare for the flood disaster both physically and health-wise. This involved a combination of data retrieved from the survey which later presented in maps that were generated using the Geographical Information System (GIS).