A Method for Measuring Coupled Individual and Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards

Tuccillo, Joseph V.; Spielman, Seth E.

doi:10.1080/24694452.2021.1989283

A Method for Measuring Coupled Individual and Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards

Journal Article · Sun Jan 23 23:00:00 EST 2022 · Annals of the American Association of Geographers

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2021.1989283· OSTI ID:1844908

^[1]; ^[2]

Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)

Although models of social vulnerability to environmental hazards are commonly developed to support policy interventions in emergencies and disasters, their utility is hindered by a lack of contextual information on individuals exposed to and affected by hazards. We develop a novel approach to model social vulnerability that couples individuals and their varying forms of protective capacity with the social fabric of the communities in which they reside. The backbone of our model is the Public-Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), a product of the U.S. Census Bureau that preserves a representative sample of completed responses to the American Community Survey (ACS). The PUMS enables us to understand the full range of individual protective capacities against a hazard in an exposed area, which we term individual vulnerability profiles (IVPs). In this case, we examine IVPs in the Coney Island-Brighton Beach section of New York City, which suffered severe impacts during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. To manage the large number of unique IVPs in Coney Island-Brighton Beach, we perform a segmentation analysis to generalize them into thematic cohort vulnerability profiles (CVPs) representing a typology of vulnerable people in Coney Island-Brighton Beach during Sandy. From synthetic populations of CVPs, we then estimate how individuals in varying housing types were coexposed to Sandy at the census tract level by classifying these areas into community social vulnerability profiles (SVPs). Our results provide a topology of social vulnerability that simultaneously links individual, community, and population-wide concerns, enabling a more holistic understanding of resources and interventions beneficial to human security during events like Sandy than is attainable with area-level metrics.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1844908

Journal Information:: Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Journal Name: Annals of the American Association of Geographers Journal Issue: 0 Vol. 0; ISSN 2469-4452

Publisher:: Taylor & FrancisCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (58)

Model-Based Clustering of Social Vulnerability to Urban Extreme Heat Events Tuccillo, Joseph V.; Buttenfield, Barbara P. Geographic Information Science https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45738-3_8	book	January 2016
Clusters of community exposure to coastal flooding hazards based on storm and sea level rise scenarios—implications for adaptation networks in the San Francisco Bay region Hummel, Michelle A.; Wood, Nathan J.; Schweikert, Amy Regional Environmental Change, Vol. 18, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-017-1267-5	journal	December 2017
Assessing vulnerabilities to the effects of global change: an eight step approach Schröter, Dagmar; Polsky, Colin; Patt, Anthony G. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Vol. 10, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-005-6135-9	journal	October 2005
Spatial disaster vulnerability and risk assessments: challenges in their quality and acceptance Fekete, Alexander Natural Hazards, Vol. 61, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-011-9973-7	journal	September 2011
Putting vulnerability to climate change on the map: a review of approaches, benefits, and risks Preston, Benjamin L.; Yuen, Emma J.; Westaway, Richard M. Sustainability Science, Vol. 6, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-011-0129-1	journal	March 2011
Spatial Variation in the Quality of American Community Survey Estimates Folch, David C.; Arribas-Bel, Daniel; Koschinsky, Julia Demography, Vol. 53, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-016-0499-1	journal	August 2016
Comparison method for community detection on brain networks from neuroimaging data Taya, Fumihiko; de Souza, Joshua; Thakor, Nitish V. Applied Network Science, Vol. 1, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41109-016-0007-y	journal	August 2016
Using gini-style indices to evaluate the spatial patterns of health practitioners: Theoretical considerations and an application based on Alberta data Brown, Malcolm C. Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 38, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(94)90189-9	journal	May 1994
Climate change and social vulnerability Bohle, Hans G.; Downing, Thomas E.; Watts, Michael J. Global Environmental Change, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0959-3780(94)90020-5	journal	March 1994
Creating synthetic baseline populations Beckman, Richard J.; Baggerly, Keith A.; McKay, Michael D. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Vol. 30, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1016/0965-8564(96)00004-3	journal	November 1996
Mapping urban risk: Flood hazards, race, & environmental justice in New York Maantay, Juliana; Maroko, Andrew Applied Geography, Vol. 29, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2008.08.002	journal	January 2009
Patterns and causes of uncertainty in the American Community Survey Spielman, Seth E.; Folch, David; Nagle, Nicholas Applied Geography, Vol. 46 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2013.11.002	journal	January 2014
DIVCLUS-T: A monothetic divisive hierarchical clustering method Chavent, Marie; Lechevallier, Yves; Briant, Olivier Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Vol. 52, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csda.2007.03.013	journal	October 2007
Linkages between vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity Gallopín, Gilberto C. Global Environmental Change, Vol. 16, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.02.004	journal	August 2006
Vulnerability Adger, W. Neil Global Environmental Change, Vol. 16, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.02.006	journal	August 2006
Adaptation, adaptive capacity and vulnerability Smit, Barry; Wandel, Johanna Global Environmental Change, Vol. 16, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.03.008	journal	August 2006
Vulnerability: A generally applicable conceptual framework for climate change research Füssel, Hans-Martin Global Environmental Change, Vol. 17, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.05.002	journal	May 2007
Building comparable global change vulnerability assessments: The vulnerability scoping diagram Polsky, Colin; Neff, Rob; Yarnal, Brent Global Environmental Change, Vol. 17, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2007.01.005	journal	August 2007
A place-based model for understanding community resilience to natural disasters Cutter, Susan L.; Barnes, Lindsey; Berry, Melissa Global Environmental Change, Vol. 18, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.07.013	journal	October 2008
Understanding and representing ‘place’ in health research: A relational approach Cummins, Steven; Curtis, Sarah; Diez-Roux, Ana V. Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 65, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.05.036	journal	November 2007
Health inequalities and place: A theoretical conception of neighbourhood Bernard, Paul; Charafeddine, Rana; Frohlich, Katherine L. Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 65, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.05.037	journal	November 2007
The development of a heat wave vulnerability index for London, United Kingdom Wolf, Tanja; McGregor, Glenn Weather and Climate Extremes, Vol. 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2013.07.004	journal	September 2013
Assessing the Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Extreme Storms: The Case of Revere, MA., USA Clark, George E.; Moser, Susanne C.; Ratick, Samuel J. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Vol. 3, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009609710795	journal	January 1998
Poverty and Disasters in the United States: A Review of Recent Sociological Findings Fothergill, Alice; Peek, Lori A. Natural Hazards, Vol. 32, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1023/B:NHAZ.0000026792.76181.d9	journal	May 2004
Ecological Fallacies and the Analysis of Areal Census Data Openshaw, S. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Vol. 16, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1068/a160017	journal	January 1984
Synthesis—A Synthetic Spatial Information System for Urban and Regional Analysis: Methods and Examples Birkin, M.; Clarke, M. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Vol. 20, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1068/a201645	journal	December 1988
Deprived People or Deprived Places? Exploring the Ecological Fallacy in Studies of Deprivation with the Samples of Anonymised Records Fieldhouse, E. A.; Tye, R. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Vol. 28, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1068/a280237	journal	February 1996
A framework for vulnerability analysis in sustainability science Turner, B. L.; Kasperson, Roger E.; Matson, Pamela A. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 100, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1231335100	journal	June 2003
Community clusters of tsunami vulnerability in the US Pacific Northwest Wood, Nathan J.; Jones, Jeanne; Spielman, Seth Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 112, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1420309112	journal	April 2015
Spectroscopy of Urban Vulnerability Rufat, Samuel Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 103, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2012.702485	journal	February 2012
Dasymetric Modeling and Uncertainty Nagle, Nicholas N.; Buttenfield, Barbara P.; Leyk, Stefan Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 104, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2013.843439	journal	November 2013
Studying Neighborhoods Using Uncertain Data from the American Community Survey: A Contextual Approach Spielman, Seth E.; Singleton, Alex Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 105, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2015.1052335	journal	August 2015
Residential Assistance and Recovery Following the Northridge Earthquake Kamel, Nabil M. O.; Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia Urban Studies, Vol. 41, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098042000178672	journal	March 2004
Navigating Statistical Uncertainty: How Urban and Regional Planners Understand and Work With American Community Survey (ACS) Data for Guiding Policy Jurjevich, Jason R.; Griffin, Amy L.; Spielman, Seth E. Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 84, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2018.1440182	journal	April 2018
Re-conceptualizing community in risk research Paveglio, Travis B.; Boyd, Amanda D.; Carroll, Matthew S. Journal of Risk Research, Vol. 20, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2015.1121908	journal	February 2016
How Valid Are Social Vulnerability Models? Rufat, Samuel; Tate, Eric; Emrich, Christopher T. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Vol. 109, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2018.1535887	journal	March 2019
Against All Odds: Multicriteria Decision Making with Hazard Prediction Maps Depicting Uncertainty Kübler, Isabella; Richter, Kai-Florian; Fabrikant, Sara Irina Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Vol. 110, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2019.1644992	journal	September 2019
Empirical Predictive Modeling Approach to Quantifying Social Vulnerability to Natural Hazards Wang, Yi (Victor); Gardoni, Paolo; Murphy, Colleen Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Vol. 111, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2020.1823807	journal	December 2020
Connecting people and place: a new framework for reducing urban vulnerability to extreme heat Wilhelmi, Olga V.; Hayden, Mary H. Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/5/1/014021	journal	January 2010
The Northridge Earthquake: Community-based Approaches to Unmet Recovery Needs Bolin, Robert; Stanford, Lois Disasters, Vol. 22, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7717.00073	journal	March 1998
Identifying and Mapping Community Vulnerability Morrow, Betty Hearn Disasters, Vol. 23, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7717.00102	journal	March 1999
Race, Ethnicity and Disasters in the United States: A Review of the Literature Fothergill, Alice; Maestas, Enrique G. M.; Darlington, JoAnne DeRouen Disasters, Vol. 23, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7717.00111	journal	June 1999
Deprivation, ill-health and the ecological fallacy Lancaster, Gillian; Green, Mick Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), Vol. 165, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-985X.00586	journal	June 2002
Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards* Cutter, Susan L.; Boruff, Bryan J.; Shirley, W. Lynn Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 84, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6237.8402002	journal	June 2003
Attitude before method: disability in vulnerability and capacity assessment Twigg, John Disasters, Vol. 38, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12066	journal	June 2014
Clustering by Passing Messages Between Data Points Frey, B. J.; Dueck, D. Science, Vol. 315, Issue 5814 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1136800	journal	February 2007
Landscape-Based Extreme Heat Vulnerability Assessment Hamstead, Zoé A.; Farmer, Carson; McPhearson, Timon Journal of Extreme Events, Vol. 05, Issue 04 https://doi.org/10.1142/S2345737618500185	journal	December 2018
Systems Science Methods in Public Health: Dynamics, Networks, and Agents Luke, Douglas A.; Stamatakis, Katherine A. Annual Review of Public Health, Vol. 33, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031210-101222	journal	April 2012
Assessing the Vulnerability of Social-Environmental Systems Eakin, Hallie; Luers, Amy Lynd Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Vol. 31, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.30.050504.144352	journal	November 2006
Community-Wide Health Risk Assessment Using Geographically Resolved Demographic Data: A Synthetic Population Approach Levy, Jonathan I.; Fabian, Maria Patricia; Peters, Junenette L. PLoS ONE, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087144	journal	January 2014
Vulnerability index construction: methodological choices and their influence on identifying vulnerable neighbourhoods Jones, Brenda; Andrey, Jean International Journal of Emergency Management, Vol. 4, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1504/IJEM.2007.013994	journal	January 2007
Creating Realistic Synthetic Populations at Varying Spatial Scales: A Comparative Critique of Population Synthesis Techniques Harland, Kirk; Heppenstall, Alison; Smith, Dianna Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Vol. 15, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.18564/jasss.1909	journal	January 2012
The fallacy of the ecological fallacy: the potential misuse of a concept and the consequences. Schwartz, S. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 84, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.84.5.819	journal	May 1994
Investigating Neighborhood and Area Effects on Health Diez Roux, Ana V. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 91, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.91.11.1783	journal	November 2001
A Social Vulnerability Index for Disaster Management Flanagan, Barry E.; Gregory, Edward W.; Hallisey, Elaine J. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.2202/1547-7355.1792	journal	January 2011
Ecological Correlations and the Behavior of Individuals Robinson, W. S. American Sociological Review, Vol. 15, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.2307/2087176	journal	June 1950
On the Science-Policy Bridge: Do Spatial Heat Vulnerability Assessment Studies Influence Policy? Wolf, Tanja; Chuang, Wen-Ching; McGregor, Glenn International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 12, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph121013321	journal	October 2015
Community-Engaged Modeling of Geographic and Demographic Patterns of Multiple Public Health Risk Factors Basra, Komal; Fabian, M.; Holberger, Raymond International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 14, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14070730	journal	July 2017

Similar Records

An Interpretable Index of Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards

Conference · Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · OSTI ID:2000388

Inequality in the availability of residential air conditioning across 115 US metropolitan areas

Journal Article · Sat Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · PNAS Nexus · OSTI ID:1901592

Developing a Climate-Induced Social Vulnerability Index for Urban Areas: A Case Study of East Tennessee

Technical Report · Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · OSTI ID:1399986

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
coupled individual and social vulnerability
geodemographics
hazards
individual vulnerability profiles
social vulnerability

A Method for Measuring Coupled Individual and Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards

Citation Formats

References (58)

Similar Records

Related Subjects