The June 2012 issue of the journal Natural Hazards includes an article entitled, “A flood vulnerability index for coastal cities and its use in assessing climate change impacts,” written by S. F. Balica, N. G. Wright and F. van der Meulen who developed a Coastal City Flood Vulnerability Index (CCFVI) based on exposure, susceptibility and resilience to coastal flooding. According to the Index, the study suggests that Shanghai is the most vulnerable major city in the world to serious flooding.

In an interview with the BBC co-author Professor Nigel Wright of the University of Leeds’ School of Civil Engineering, said “the CCFVI used a range of data consisting of 19 components. We still use the physical ones but also economic and social ones, such as how much attention is given to local or national governments to protect citizens’ property through investing forms of resilience.” Professor Wright explained that the CCFVI endeavors to examine “social indicators too. You can have people who live in the same area but their vulnerability is actually different. Age is one of those things; if you are over 65 or under 18 then you are more vulnerable than an adult because you are not able to take the actions necessary to protect yourself or evacuate.”

The study focused on nine coastal cities built on river deltas including Shanghai, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Casablanca in Morocco, Buenos Aires in Argentina, Calcutta in India, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.