Defining and Identifying Vulnerable Communities: A Practical Guide for Weather Forecast Offices

Keywords: Vulnerability, Resilience, Coastal Hazards, North Carolina
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Efforts to define and map vulnerable communities remain challenging but necessary for National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters to provide better impact based decision support to core partners and local community leaders. What follows is one approach for Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) to define and identify vulnerable communities which relies on both social science based quantitative datasets and qualitative interviews with emergency managers. This work considers six counties within the County Warning Area (CWA) of the Newport/Morehead City WFO and takes a sub-county level approach to vulnerability. Three vulnerable communities within each county are identified from data tools “Neighborhoods at Risk” by Headwaters Economics and “Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool” by FEMA. Accompanying these quantitatively identified vulnerable communities are qualitative interviews with emergency managers from three inland and three coastal counties within the CWA. An interactive map is created using GIS that combines feedback from emergency managers and data on vulnerable communities obtained through the databases listed above. This map can be used by warning coordination meteorologists (WCMs) and operational meteorologists alike to gain general knowledge of CWA vulnerabilities, target outreach to vulnerable communities, and customize data to meet specific needs of emergency managers. While the current study considers just six of fifteen counties within one CWA, it serves as a proof of concept for the remaining counties within the warning area and other WFOs within the NWS.