Assessing vulnerability of rural buildings to tornadoes and their relationships with building attributes and surrounding land uses

Bibliographic Data

ID22025587
AuthorsXuanmei Yang (Yancheng Teachers University), Kai-Fa Lu (0000-0002-5492-7843, Texas Tech University, corresponding author), Xiangyu Li (0009-0008-8214-4337, Oklahoma State University)
Year2026
Volume137
Pages106097
Publication date2026-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2212-4209
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.ijdrr.2026.106097
OpenAlexW7134962768
LanguageEN
References cited46

Tornadoes can cause extensive destruction to the built environment, yet limited research in China has examined how building attributes and surrounding natural environments influence the vulnerability of rural buildings. Using the “6.23” tornado in Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province (China), this study applied Logistic Regression and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) models to analyze these relationships. A dataset of 2521 rural buildings shows that four building attributes, such as number of stories, structural type, usage, and floor area, were significantly associated with tornado damage to rural buildings at the 95% confidence level. The results suggest that taller buildings, larger areas, and stronger structures like brick-concrete and masonry are generally less vulnerable. Beyond building-level factors, geographic context and surrounding land use also played a critical role. To capture these broader effects, individual buildings were aggregated into 42 villages, and average village-level damage was calculated. Modeling at the village scale reveals that higher proportions of arable land (e.g., dry farmland), built-up land (e.g., rural settlements), and river surfaces tended to increase vulnerability, whereas transportation land had a mitigating influence. The consistency of results across Logistic Regression and XGBoost strengthens the reliability of these findings. Overall, this study highlights the combined importance of building design and environmental context in shaping rural building vulnerability to tornadoes. By providing data-driven evidence, the results support local governments in developing adaptation planning strategies for tornado-prone rural areas, particularly through informed decisions on building attributes and land use configurations to reduce future risks

Land use · Poison control · Tornado · Vulnerability assessment · Hygrothermal properties of building materials · Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones Research · Wind and Air Flow Studies

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Open DOIOpen Access