Wenping Xu

Purpose: This study develops a multi-criteria framework to assess relative urban flood resilience, temporal change and built-environment adaptation constraints across 18 municipal-level units in Henan Province, China. Design/methodology/approach: Seventeen indicators covering natural, economic, social and infrastructure dimensions were evaluated for 2011, 2016 and 2021. Analytic Network Process and Entropy Weight Method weights were integrated through game-theoretic combination weighting. VIKOR–Grey Relational Analysis was applied to 54 pooled municipal-year observations, and the compromise score was transformed into a positively oriented flood-resilience score (FRS = 1 - Q). Obstacle-factor analysis, numerical verification of the implemented equations, an EWM-only comparison and VIKOR preference-parameter sensitivity tests assessed robustness. Findings: Mean FRS increased from 0.1325 in 2011 to 0.2431 in 2016 and 0.3551 in 2021. Zhengzhou ranked first throughout, whereas Hebi and Jiyuan remained among the lower-ranked units. Recurring diagnostic constraints included V11, V5, V14, V4 and V6. Numerical verification reproduced the final Q values within floating-point precision. Rankings remained highly consistent under EWM-only weighting and the V12-exclusion specification but were more sensitive under ANP-only weighting and extreme VIKOR preference-parameter values. Practical implications: The findings support differentiated attention to municipal fiscal capacity, drainage networks, knowledge resources and development-infrastructure coordination. Obstacle degrees are relative diagnostic signals, not causal effects or absolute safety standards. Originality/value: The study integrates combination weighting, compromise ranking, grey relational adjustment, obstacle diagnosis and explicit robustness testing within a documented diagnostic workflow.

Purpose: This study investigates the multidimensional impacts of digital transformation on construction supply chains, focusing on efficiency, cost-effectiveness, transparency, traceability and risk management, while revealing maturity gaps across dimensions. Design/methodology/approach: This study develops a Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE)–Cloud evaluation framework and applies a multi-dimensional indicator system to assess digital transformation in construction supply chains. Expert judgments are combined with quantitative analysis to evaluate efficiency, cost, transparency, and risk management. Findings: Digital transformation significantly strengthens supply chain capabilities, with efficiency improvement emerging as the primary driver. It also enhances cost-effectiveness, transparency and early warning functions. However, traceability and risk response effectiveness remain less mature, indicating areas requiring further development. Originality/value: This study integrates the technology–organization–environment framework with an expert-informed cloud model to evaluate construction supply chain digitalization, offering a novel approach for capturing multidimensional impacts and interactions across technological, organizational and environmental factors. The framework provides both theoretical insights and actionable guidance for enterprises advancing digital transformation.

Purpose: In view of the increasing threat of flooding across the world and specifically the vulnerability of the Pearl River Delta region to these risks, this study undertakes a spatial and temporal evolution of flood risk in the region, including an assessment of urban flood resilience. Design/methodology/approach: By combining the pressure-state-response (PSR) model and the nature-economy-society-infrastructure (NESI) framework, an urban flood resilience index system is constructed. The order relation analysis method, Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation method and the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija Kompromisno Resenje evaluation method, they were then combined to quantify urban flood resilience and reveal the hierarchical relationships that exist between key factors. Using ArcGIS software, the resilience levels of each city are dynamically tracked and compared to reveal the trends in flood resilience over a three-year period. Findings: The results show that annual precipitation and impervious areas are the key factors impacting environmental pressure, while the sewage treatment rate is found to be the key response measure. The cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen were shown to have maintained high flood resilience indexes (FRI), while Zhaoqing City was the weakest. Flood resilience levels across the Pearl River Delta were found to vary significantly, with the central and southern cities having higher levels than those in the eastern and western regions. Originality/value: This study constructs a new combined method for assessing urban flood resilience, which is suitable for quickly and accurately assessing the short-term spatial and temporal evolution trend of urban flood resilience.

Purpose: Flooding is China’s most frequent and catastrophic natural hazard, causing extensive damage. The aim of this study is to develop a comprehensive assessment of urban flood risk in the Hubei Province of China, focusing on the following three issues: (1) What are the factors that cause floods? (2) To what extent do these factors affect flood risk management? (3) How to build an effective comprehensive assessment system that can be used to reduce flood risk? Design/methodology/approach: This study combines expert opinion and evidence from the extent literature to identify flood risk indicators across four dimensions: disaster risk, susceptibility, exposure and prevention and mitigation. The Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) and the Grey Relational Analysis (RA)-based Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) decision-making approach were applied to calculate the weighting of factors and develop a model of urban flood risk. Then, ArcGIS software visualizes risk levels and spatial distribution in the cities of Hubei Province; uncertainty analysis verified method accuracy. Findings: The results show that there are significant differences in the level of urban flood risk in Hubei Province, with cities such as Tianmen, Qianjiang, Xiantao and Ezhou being at high risk, while cities such as Shiyan, Xiangyang, Shennongjia, Yichang, Wuhan and Huanggang are at lower flood risk. Originality/value: The innovative method of combining CRITIC-GRA-TOPSIS reduces the presence of subjective bias found in many other flood risk assessment frameworks. Regional data extraction and uncertainty analysis enhance result reliability, supporting long-term decision-making and urban planning. Overall, the methodological approach developed provides an advanced, highly effective and efficient analysis and visualization of flood risk. This study deepens the understanding of flood risk assessment mechanisms and more broadly supports the development of resilient cities.

Purpose: This study aims to determine the key indicators affecting the resilience of the construction supply chain to flooding and calculate the resilience of the urban construction supply chain in three cases city. Design/methodology/approach: This study combines expert opinions and literature review to determine key indicators and establish a fuzzy EWM-GRA-TOPSIS evaluation model. The index weight was calculated using the entropy weight method, and GRA-TOPSIS was used for comprehensive evaluation. Findings: The results of the study show that the three cities are ranked from the high to low in order of Hangzhou, Hefei and Zhengzhou. Originality/value: The innovative method adopted in this study comprising EWM-GRA-TOPSIS reduced the influence of subjectivity, fully extracted and utilized data, in a way that respects objective reality. Further, this approach enabled the absolute and relative level of urban construction supply chain resilience to be identified, allowing improvements in the comprehensiveness of decision-making. The method is relatively simple, reasonable, understandable, and computationally efficient. Within the approach, the entropy weight method was used to assign different index weights, and the GRA-TOPSIS was used to rank the resilience of the construction supply chain in three urban cities. The development of resilience provides a robust decision-making basis and theoretical reference, further enriching research methods, and having strong practical value. The study serves to improve risk awareness and resilience, which in turn helps to reduce losses. It also provides enhanced awareness regarding the future enhancement of supply chain resilience for urban construction.

Urban flooding is one of the main challenges affecting sustainable urban development worldwide, threatening the safety and well-being of communities and citizens. The aim of this study is to assess the development and trends in urban flood resilience at the city scale, as well as to improve the resilience of cities to these risks over time. The study constructs a model for assessing urban flood resilience that incorporates economic, social, ecological, and managerial aspects and assesses them through a range of indicators identified in the literature. The comprehensive evaluation model of Network Analysis Method–Entropy Weight Method–The Distance between Excellent and Inferior Solutions (ANP-EWM-TOPSIS) was used to empirically investigate the flood resilience characteristics of Nanjing from 2010 to 2021. There are two main findings of the study: firstly, the flood resilience of Nanjing gradually improves over time, as the economic flood resilience steadily increases, while the social, ecological, and management flood resilience decreases; and secondly, during the study period, barriers caused by economic and regulatory factors in Nanjing decreased by 33.75% and 23.72%, respectively, while barriers caused by social and ecological factors increased by 32.69% and 24.68%, respectively. The novelty of this study is the introduction of a “barrier degree” model, which identifies and highlights barriers and obstacles to improving urban flood resilience and provides new insights into improving urban flood resilience at the city scale.

Moving beyond the paradigm of flood protection and recovery, improving flood resilience is one of the important strategies to deal with the impacts of climate change and the increasing threat of flooding. As the concepts and frameworks of resilience develop, so the assessment of flood resilience around the world is becoming increasingly widespread. The quantitative assessment of flood resilience, as an evaluative tool to help quantify risk, resilience and flood risk management approaches, has emerged as an urgent priority. A review of literature on the measurement of resilience includes studies focusing on cities, communities and infrastructure. It summarizes and expands the concept of flood resilience and critically analyses evaluation and measurement methods of various aspects of flood resilience to identify gaps and challenges in this research field. Measures to deal with flooding and suggestions for future research focus and research direction of flood resilience are also presented.

In recent years, large-scale flood events have occurred more frequently, and the concept of resilience has become a prevalent approach to managing flood risk in many regions. This has led to an increased interest in how to effectively measure a city’s flood resilience levels. This study proposes a novel modeling approach to quantify urban flood resilience by developing D-number theory and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) models, which are applied to three cities in China using the VIse Kriterijumski Optimizacioni Racun (VIKOR) method. The findings reveal that Hefei City has the most effective level of flood resilience, Hangzhou City was ranked second, while Zhengzhou City has the least effective level of flood resilience. This study provides a new scientific basis on how to quantify flood resilience at the city scale and provides a useful reference for these three specific cities. The methods and approaches developed in this study have the potential to be applied to other cities and in the related aspects of disaster prevention, recovery, and reconstruction.

Humanitarian supply chains play a major role in enabling disaster-affected areas to recover in a timely manner and enable economic and social activities to be restored. However, the sudden onset and increasing frequency of natural disasters such as flash floods require humanitarian supply chains to be resilient during the relief process. In this study, the evaluation indicators were identified from the literature and the Delphi method, and the weights of the evaluation indicators were calculated using the ANP method; the ANP method was combined with the Pythagorean fuzzy VIKOR (PFs-VIKOR) to propose the ANP-PFs-VIKOR method model. The model was used to examine the example of the 2021 megaflood event in Zhengzhou City to evaluate the performance of the humanitarian supply chain in four cities. The findings suggest that the indicator with the strongest impact on the effectiveness of humanitarian supply chains is coordination among participating organizations. Dengfeng City was found to have the best performing humanitarian supply chain. The findings of this research provide some helpful indication of the importance of the various emergency measures which can help to inform policy recommendations for the Zhengzhou municipal government.

The sudden onset of natural hazards such as a flash flood events can be devastating to a country or region, often affecting numerous communities, and humanitarian supply chains play a major role in enabling the timely recovery of economic and social activities. However, the uncertainty and suddenness of natural disasters such as flash floods, as well as the potential for aftershocks, require humanitarian supply chains to be resilient during the relief process. This research first adopts the Delphi and literature review methods to identify the key indicators in the humanitarian supply chain to form an evaluation index system. Then, taking the 2021 mega-flash flood event which affected four cities in the mountainous region under the jurisdiction of the Zhengzhou municipal government, the ANP method is used to calculate the weights of each indicator and combines the weighted results with the Multi-styling and stereotyping method under Pythagorean fuzzy (PFs-VIKOR) to make an evaluation of the resilience of the humanitarian supply chain in the relief process. The findings suggest that policy makers and decision makers should pay close attention to the coordination of the parties involved in the humanitarian supply chain and improve the level of resilience of the entire supply chain by enhancing the resource scheduling capacity and responsiveness. At the same time, the VIKOR evaluation of the 4 cities highlighted the humanitarian supply chain in Dengfeng City to be most effective in this event due to the close cooperation and positive response of all parties involved in the humanitarian supply chain. The findings of this research provide some useful suggestions and guidance to the various practitioners involved in the humanitarian supply chain. Furthermore, the evaluation of the performance of the four cities in this mega-flash flood event provides some helpful indication of the importance of the various emergency measures which can help to inform policy recommendations for the Zhengzhou municipal government.