Assessment of Climate Risk using Social Vulnerability Index Grids for the United States

Keywords: climate, vulnerability, exposure, flood
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 16

Abstract

The mission of NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) is to develop and operate applications that support the integration of socioeconomic and Earth science data. SEDAC is actively developing products to meet the growing need for high resolution information on vulnerable populations to be used in environmental justice research. The U.S. Social Vulnerability Index Grids data set contains gridded layers for the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) using four sub-category themes (Socioeconomic, Household Composition & Disability, Minority Status & Language, and Housing Type & Transportation) based on census tract level inputs. SEDAC has gridded these vector inputs to create 1 km spatial resolution raster surfaces allowing users to obtain vulnerability metrics for any user-defined area within the U.S. The product can be integrated with other spatial data to identify social vulnerability levels in areas such as disaster risk zones, coastal areas, or urban versus rural areas. This can be a significant advantage for understanding patterns of vulnerability in relation to hazard exposure where communities may have a high likelihood of sustaining losses, or an insufficient capacity for resilience. SEDAC incorporates the data in open map services for use in its own and third party online mapping tools, including an application in New York State which incorporates building level flood impacts to a variety of sea level rise scenarios. This presentation introduces the SVI grids and applies them in a number of example applications related to differential vulnerability levels in flood risk areas.