 This paper presents a new method for assessing the vulnerability of coastal cities to storm surge, which involves creating a 3D model of the city using oblique airborne photogrammetry and image-based 3D reconstruction, extracting building information using architecture footprints and quantifying the aggregate economic value of selected urban surface features using GIS techniques. The study shows that downscaling the assessment granularity from counter-level administrative districts to a one-kilometer grid greatly improves vulnerability assessment accuracy. This article was authored by Jin Liu, Jin Huagong, Jin Mingliang, and others.