ALBERT

Description: The Papathoma Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment (PTVA) model offers a GIS (geographical information system)-based method of estimating the vulnerability of buildings to a potential tsunami threat. In the absence of fully validated building fragility curves, it provides an effective means of identifying vulnerable buildings/populations and estimating the loss associated with a tsunami. However, the PTVA model is limited by a number of factors, including a poor representation of the tsunami hazard, insufficient field testing/validation, and a data intensive and highly qualitative framework. These limitations significantly reduce its capacity as an accurate and practical tool for end users, such as emergency services and community planners. Presented in this paper is an extensive review of the PTVA methodology and recommendations on how the PTVA model can be improved to address the needs of end users. It is argued that the most recent version of the PTVA model, PTVA-3, offers the best available method for assessing the vulnerability of buildings to tsunamis. As such, the future development of new, and the refinement of existing, GIS-based tsunami vulnerability assessment techniques should consider the PTVA-3 model as the baseline.