Assessing the Relationship between Social Vulnerability, Social Capital, and Housing Resilience

Sebastian Rowan,Kyle Kwiatkowski

doi:10.3390/su12187718

Abstract

Social vulnerability and social capital have been shown to influence how severely communities are impacted by natural hazards and how quickly they recover. Indices exist to quantify these factors using publicly available data; however, more empirical research is needed to validate these indices and support their use in pre-disaster planning and decision making. Using data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and data gathered through imagery analysis in Google Earth, this study evaluates the effectiveness of two indices of social vulnerability and social capital to predict housing impacts and rates of recovery in Florida and Puerto Rico following Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. We found the social vulnerability index to be statistically significant in explaining the variation of housing impacts in both case studies, with varying results for the sub-indices of social vulnerability. Results for the social capital index were mixed between the case studies, and we found no statistically significant relationship between any of the indices and rates of housing recovery. Our results show that indices such as these can be useful, with an awareness of limitations, for researchers and emergency practitioners, and additional empirical analysis is needed to more fully support their efficacy for resilience assessment.

Highlights

Each year, disasters affect millions of people and cause billions of dollars in damages worldwide [1]
The Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and each theme were positively correlated with housing damages, except for SVI theme 4, which was negatively correlated with housing damage in the Puerto Rico case study
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the SVI and social capital index (SoCI) as tools for resilience assessment

Summary

Introduction

Disasters affect millions of people and cause billions of dollars in damages worldwide [1]. As the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are expected to increase due to climate change [2,3], there is a growing need to understand the factors that affect resilience to these events, and to incorporate these factors into planning and decision-making tools for emergency management, recovery, and risk reduction One such tool is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) database [4]. Several indices exist using census data to measure vulnerable populations and create consistent metrics of social vulnerability with which to compare communities across a broader geographic context Emergency practitioners use these indices for disaster planning, response, and recovery operations. Hazards researchers use them to improve the understanding of social vulnerability and how different communities experience disasters [10]

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Conclusion