Coastal Vulnerability Index for Kenya's 640 km Coastline

7,555 coastal segments of Kenya are assessed for vulnerability using eight physical and three socioeconomic indicators. The analysis, authored by Abigail Kagema and last updated in May 2026, finds 31.7% of segments fall in the High or Very High vulnerability class. It provides a transferable, open-data framework for coastal adaptation planning in Kenya and East Africa.

Use Cases

• Prioritize coastal protection investments based on the combined Physical and Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index scores.
• Identify heritage sites and infrastructure at risk using the inventory of 46 mapped locations with high vulnerability scores.
• Model sea-level rise impacts by analyzing indicators like shoreline change rate, elevation, and sea-level rise trend.
• Assess human exposure drivers by comparing the separate Physical Vulnerability Index and Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index.

Strengths

• Covers Kenya's entire 640 km coastline divided into 7,555 detailed segments.
• Integrates eight physical and three socioeconomic indicators into a weighted, normalized index.
• Includes a specific at-risk inventory of 46 heritage sites, hotels, and biodiversity areas.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count for the underlying indicator data is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data freshness should be verified as the last update is projected for 2026-05-12.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Developed using GIS and the Analytical Hierarchy Process on exclusively open-access data.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-12 04:19:41

Geography

Kenyan coastline