9
Tecnología y Ciencias del Agua
, vol. VIII, núm. 2, marzo-abril de 2017, pp. 5-18
Lee
et al
.,
Relationships between floods and social fragmentation: A case study of Chiayi, Taiwan
ISSN 2007-2422
•
accessibility to health facilities, and thus will
further induce migration from rural to urban
areas (Elmqvist
et al
., 2013). Therefore, out-
migration can be seen as a root cause of social
fragmentation in rural areas.
Marriage and social support limit the nega-
tive impacts of chronic illness (Elliott, Charyton,
Sprangers, Lu, & Moore, 2011). Furthermore,
single and unpaired individuals are more re-
sponsive to psychological stress than married
individuals, consistent with a growing body of
evidence suggesting that marriage and social
support protect against stress (Maestripieri,
Baran, Sapienza, & Zingales, 2010).
Data and Method
Study site
Chiayi County, one of the 22 municipalities and
counties of Taiwan, is located on the west coast
of the country. To the east of Chiayi County is
Jade Mountain; to the west is the Taiwan Strait;
to the south is Tainan County, and to the north
is Yunlin County. Chiayi County has an area of
1,903 square kilometers, or 5.35% that of Taiwan.
Chiayi County has 18 cities and townships (fi-
gure 1). Located in Central Southern Taiwan,
Chiayi is easily accessible, particularly now the
completion of the Taiwan High-Speed Rail has
cut travel time to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan,
to just one hour.
The population of Chiayi County was ap-
proximately 540 000 in 2013. The Tropic of
Cancer runs through Chiayi, which has a dif-
ferent landscape to other places on the Tropic
of Cancer, most of which are either dessert or
semi-dessert while Taiwan is forested owing
to the abundant rainfall brought by the trade
wind and airstreams. Chiayi County has four
notable geographic features: coastal, plains, hills
and mountains.
Land subsidence and changes in the coastline
are important issues in Taiwan (Chen, Wang,
Figure 1. Chiayi County, Taiwan.
