Kaveh Faraji Najarkolaie, M. Bensi, Ryan Dadmun, Courtney E Romolt, Yalda Saadat, Nicolette Louissaint
{"title":"Expanding Vulnerability Indices for Pandemic Effects","authors":"Kaveh Faraji Najarkolaie, M. Bensi, Ryan Dadmun, Courtney E Romolt, Yalda Saadat, Nicolette Louissaint","doi":"10.1061/nhrefo.nheng-1575","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In this study, our goal is to identify potentially vulnerable communities that could be subject to ongoing or compounding impacts from the pandemic and/or that may experience a slower recovery due to sociodemographic factors. For this purpose, we compiled information from multiple databases related to sociodemographic and health variables. We used a ranking-based method to integrate them and develop new combined indices. We also investigated a time-dependent correlation between vulnerability components and COVID-19 statistics to understand their time-dependent relationship. We ultimately developed pandemic vulnerability indices by combining CDC's social vulnerability index, our newly developed composite health vulnerability index, and COVID-19 impact indices. We also considered additional assessments include expected annual loss due to natural hazards and community resilience. Potential hot spots (at the county level) were identified throughout the United States, and some general trends were noted. Counties with high COVID-19 impact indices and higher values of the pandemic vulnerability indices were primarily located in the southern United States or coastal areas in the Eastern and Southwestern United States at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over time, the computed pandemic vulnerability indices shifted to higher values for counties in the southern and north-central United States, while values calculated for the northwestern and northeastern communities tended to decrease.","PeriodicalId":51262,"journal":{"name":"Natural Hazards Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Natural Hazards Review","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1061/nhrefo.nheng-1575","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, CIVIL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In this study, our goal is to identify potentially vulnerable communities that could be subject to ongoing or compounding impacts from the pandemic and/or that may experience a slower recovery due to sociodemographic factors. For this purpose, we compiled information from multiple databases related to sociodemographic and health variables. We used a ranking-based method to integrate them and develop new combined indices. We also investigated a time-dependent correlation between vulnerability components and COVID-19 statistics to understand their time-dependent relationship. We ultimately developed pandemic vulnerability indices by combining CDC's social vulnerability index, our newly developed composite health vulnerability index, and COVID-19 impact indices. We also considered additional assessments include expected annual loss due to natural hazards and community resilience. Potential hot spots (at the county level) were identified throughout the United States, and some general trends were noted. Counties with high COVID-19 impact indices and higher values of the pandemic vulnerability indices were primarily located in the southern United States or coastal areas in the Eastern and Southwestern United States at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over time, the computed pandemic vulnerability indices shifted to higher values for counties in the southern and north-central United States, while values calculated for the northwestern and northeastern communities tended to decrease.
期刊介绍:
The Natural Hazards Review addresses the range of events, processes, and consequences that occur when natural hazards interact with the physical, social, economic, and engineered dimensions of communities and the people who live, work, and play in them. As these conditions interact and change, the impact on human communities increases in size, scale, and scope. Such interactions necessarily need to be analyzed from an interdisciplinary perspective that includes both social and technical measures. For decision makers, the risk presents the challenge of managing known hazards, but unknown consequences in time of occurrence, scale of impact, and level of disruption in actual communities with limited resources. The journal is dedicated to bringing together the physical, social, and behavioral sciences; engineering; and the regulatory and policy environments to provide a forum for cutting edge, holistic, and cross-disciplinary approaches to anticipating risk, loss, and cost reduction from natural hazards. The journal welcomes rigorous research on the intersection between social and technical systems that advances concepts of resilience within lifeline and infrastructure systems and the organizations that manage them for all hazards. It offers a professional forum for researchers and practitioners working together to publish the results of truly interdisciplinary and partnered approaches to the anticipation of risk, loss reduction, and community resilience. Engineering topics covered include the characterization of hazard forces and the planning, design, construction, maintenance, performance, and use of structures in the physical environment. Social and behavioral sciences topics include analysis of the impact of hazards on communities and the organizations that seek to mitigate and manage response to hazards.