Modeling Social Vulnerability along the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Keywords: Social, Vulnerability, Hazard, Geographic Information System (GIS)
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 14

Abstract

Natural hazards have been growing in frequency and severity in recent years. Increasingly, individuals and communities have experienced simultaneous hazard events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Hurricane Ida in 2021. Vulnerability assessments designed to help decrease hazard impacts and enhance a community's ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from hazard events are recommended by the United Nation’s Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015―2030.

Given that people living in areas affected by hazard events are socioeconomically and culturally heterogeneous, understanding the characteristics and spatial distributions of vulnerable populations is important to help them receive needed resources. Predisposed to flooding and home to Hispanic and Asian immigrants, many of whom do not speak English, the Mississippi Gulf Coast is an excellent example of this type of locale.

A census block level social vulnerability index was created to help ensure that local residents have access to risk information and to help emergency response personnel with resource allocation during hazard events. Combining this somewhat fine-scale index with a coastal hazard impact model allowed the determination of the socio-economic-cultural characteristics of vulnerable populations within coastal flood zones and their access to emergency information. The index showed that the most vulnerable residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast lived in high-hazard-impact coastal urban areas. This index can be used to examine vulnerability variation at a granular level, which, in addition to increasing resilience of vulnerable populations, could be used to address environmental, climate, and energy justice issues.