Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Social Vulnerability in the United States from 1970 to 2010: A County Trajectory Analysis

Gainbi Park and Zengwang Xu
Additional contact information
Gainbi Park: University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, USA
Zengwang Xu: University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, USA

International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research (IJAGR), 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 36-54

Abstract: Social vulnerability has been an important concept to characterize the extent to which human society is vulnerable to hazards. Although it is well known that social vulnerability varies across space and over time, there is only a paucity of studies to examine the basic patterns of the spatial and temporal dynamics of the social vulnerability in the United States. This study examines the spatial and temporal dynamics of social vulnerability of the U.S. counties from 1970 to 2010. For each decade, social vulnerability of counties is quantified by the social vulnerability index (SoVI) using county-level social, economic, demographic, and built environment characteristics. The SoVI is mainly designed to quantify the cross-sectional variation of social vulnerability and is not conducive to direct comparison over time. This study implements a methodology that integrates quantile standardization, sequence alignment analysis, and cluster analysis to investigate how social vulnerability of U.S. counties has changed over time. The authors find that U.S. counties exhibit distinctive spatial and longitudinal patterns, and there are counties/areas which have persistent high or low social vulnerability as well as frequent change in their social vulnerability over time. The results can be useful for policymakers, disaster managers, planning officials, and social scientists in general.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve. ... 018/IJAGR.2020010103 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:igg:jagr00:v:11:y:2020:i:1:p:36-54

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research (IJAGR) is currently edited by Donald Patrick Albert

More articles in International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research (IJAGR) from IGI Global
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journal Editor ().