Community variations in social vulnerability to Cascadia-related tsunamis in the U.S. Pacific Northwest

Abstract

Tsunamis generated by Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes pose significant threats to coastal communities in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Impacts of future tsunamis to individuals and communities will likely vary due to pre-event socioeconomic and demographic differences. In order to assess social vulnerability to Cascadia tsunamis, we adjust a social vulnerability index based on principal component analysis first developed by Cutter et al. (2003) to operate at the census-block level of geography and focus on community-level comparisons along the Oregon coast. The number of residents from blocks in tsunami-prone areas considered to have higher social vulnerability varies considerably among 26 Oregon cities and most are concentrated in four cities and two unincorporated areas. Variations in the number of residents from census blocks considered to have higher social vulnerability in each city do not strongly correlate with the number of residents or city assets in tsunami-prone areas. Methods presented here will help emergency managers to identify community sub-groups that are more susceptible to loss and to develop riskreduction strategies that are tailored to local conditions.

Mapping Social Vulnerability to Air Pollution: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta Region, China

“…The index ultimately composited was called the Social Vulnerability Index and was firstly abbreviated to SoVI by Cutter. This aggregation method has been applied widely and become classic for social vulnerability assessment [38][39][40][41][42]. Other researchers have explored some innovative methods of aggregation.…”

Fault zone regulation, seismic hazard, and social vulnerability inLos Angeles,California:Hazardor urban amenity?

“…This definition is aligned with Cutter's [1996] "hazard of place model" and other TOKÉ ET AL. conceptual models that account for people's resilience to a hazard in addition to the physical effects of the hazard [Cutter et al, 2003;Turner et al, 2003;Wood et al, 2009]. The impact of relative social vulnerability on the outcome of seismic disasters is well illustrated by comparing casualty rates from the 2010 Haiti earthquake and other recent large earthquakes.…”

Incorporating evacuation potential into place vulnerability analysis

“…According to the HPM, vulnerability is derived from the interaction of both a geophysical risk and a social response at a specific geographic location. To date, many vulnerability studies that implement the HPM have focused on the combination of geophysical risk and social factors in creating a composite place vulnerability index or map (Clark et al 1998;Cutter et al 2000;Chakraborty et al 2005;Wood et al 2010;Schmidtlein et al 2011;Kar & Hodgson 2012). For example, Cutter et al (2000) combined several geophysical variables and socioeconomic data of Georgetown County, South Carolina to develop geophysical and social vulnerability maps, respectively.…”

“…Over the last three decades, most hazard researchers that focused on vulnerability analyses have paid particular attention to the intersection of geophysical risk and social factors in generating place vulnerability (Clark et al 1998;Montz and Tobin 1998;Mileti 1999;Cutter et al 2000;Wu et al 2002;Brooks et al 2005;Chakraborty et al 2005;Cutter & Finch 2008;Wood et al 2010;Schmidtlein et al 2011;Kar & Hodgson 2012). This approach is derivative of the Hazards-of-Place Model (HPM) developed by Cutter (1996) which offers a conceptual framework through which place vulnerability is defined as a combination of social characteristics (expressed by selected socioeconomic demographics) and geophysical risk (expressed by probabilities of occurrence).…”