SoVI in SoFLA: Reframing the Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) for South Florida

Keywords: hazards, social vulnerability, environmental justice, risk, disaster
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

South Florida is home to a large population of immigrants from around the world. According to the American Immigration Council, immigrants composed 21% of the total Florida population in 2018. Immigrant families enrich the cultural landscape of South Florida through their traditions, customs, and languages. The strengths of these communities such as strong family ties and immigration status are often seen as weaknesses or vulnerabilities when calculating a social vulnerability index. In other instances, certain groups are stereotyped and classified as vulnerable due to their identity. For example, in most social vulnerability indices, female populations are assumed to have a positive relationship with vulnerability (high female population in an area signifies higher vulnerability) based on socially constructed gender stereotypes. The purpose of this study is to reframe the current framework of social vulnerability indices to empower marginalized groups. A social vulnerability index will be created for the South Florida tri-county region using census tract level data for indicators related to citizenship status, English language proficiency, household type, and gender. Vulnerability indicators will be reduced to components using Principal Component Analysis and then assigned cardinality. The cardinality assignments may result in an inverted cardinality for components, such as gender, and differ from previously created indices. The results from the newly created social vulnerability index will be compared to previously created indices such as the Hazards Vulnerability & Resilience Institute’s (HVRI) Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) to reframe how marginalized populations are perceived and supported before, during, and after a disaster.