The application of the Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) for geo- targeting of post-disaster recovery resources

Abstract

While planning the recovery from two destructive flood events in South Carolina in 2015 and 2016, the South Carolina Office of Resilience (SCOR) employed an evidentiary-based tool to assist in geographical targeting of federal flood recovery funding to those areas with the greatest damage and with the most socially vulnerable populations based on an index of social vulnerability (SoVI). This paper examines the relationship between the initial selection of areas targeted for applicant recruitment and the actual recovery outcomes (e.g., completed housing projects) focused on two specific questions: 1) were the completed recovery projects (beneficiaries) located in the initial targeted census tracts defined as high social vulnerability and high verified flood loss; and 2) was the measured social vulnerability of the census tract successful in characterizing the demographics of the actual beneficiaries with completed housing restoration? Findings demonstrated that recovery funding applicants were among the most socially vulnerable within a tract, and recovery funding beneficiaries were among the most vulnerable within the applicant group when compared to Census tract averages but had less correlation with the aggregate SoVI-defined levels. While SoVI proved useful in targeting broad areas for applicant recruitment that contained those most affected and most in need, it was less successful in identifying the individual characteristics of beneficiaries in those tracts due to the spatial mismatch between individual (beneficiaries) and areal (census tracts) enumeration units. This research reveals an operational role for social vulnerability in targeting efforts in an apolitical way to achieve a more equitable applicant pool for recovery dollars.