Social Vulnerability & Coastal Hazards

The data in this mapping tool was based off a literature review which identified social, economic, and demographic data that would create barriers for individuals to prepare for, respond to, and recover from sea level rise and other coastal hazards. Not all data relevant to sea level rise or other coastal hazards was included as some data sets were either not available for Hawai’i or not available at all. The data indicators present in the census tract or block group boundary are viewed as the result of systems of inequality and not as a characteristic of a community. The results of this tool should not be generalized for everyone within the designated boundaries and should only be used to gain a general understating of the social, economic, and demographic makeup of an area. Further analysis (community outreach, working groups, interviews, etc.) should be used to supplement information that cannot be gathered from the mapping tool. To learn more about how this tool was developed, please refer to the accompanying document.  

 Click here to access the final report for "Identifying and understanding Hawaiʻi’s coastal communities to inform equitable policy 

This project is now completed, below is the Story Map used throughout the project time period.

As Climate Change continues, sea level rise (SLR) poses a threat to Hawaiʻi and its coastal communities through loss of land, connection to place, infrastructure, and critical resources. The 2017 Hawaiʻi Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report modeled various SLR scenarios: 0.5 feet, 1.1 feet, 2.0 feet, and 3.2 feet. Based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) prediction of 3.2 feet SLR by 2100, the 3.2 feet SLR scenario was used to approximate hazards that might occur later in the century, while the 1.1 feet SLR scenario was used to approximate hazards that could occur sooner. These scenarios can be visualized in The State of Hawaiʻi Sea Level Rise Viewer, a mapping tool that allows users to depict various SLR scenarios to see areas that will be affected by coastal hazards. 

Recently, other estimates have shown sea level rise of 3.2 feet as early as 2060. With these alarming estimates, sea level rise adaptation and mitigation measures are needed now to reduce the long-term, negative impacts sea level rise will have on Hawaiʻi's coastal communities.  

While all coastal communities will be negatively affected by sea level rise, there will be a disproportionate impact on some communities based on various social, economic, and demographic factors. These factors could affect one’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from events such as sea level rise. “Social Vulnerability” is a concept which incorporates the resilience of communities and their responses to events based on these factors. It is commonly seen in risk management and public health work, and only recently has started to be applied to climate change and its associated disasters. 

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states "Social Vulnerability refers to the resilience of communities (the ability to survive and thrive) when confronted by external stresses on human health, stresses such as natural or human-caused disasters, or disease outbreaks. Reducing social vulnerability can decrease both human suffering and economic loss." 

The term “social vulnerability” has been noted to have a negative connotation as it sounds like it is placing blame on communities that are considered “vulnerable”. This project looks at social vulnerability as the result of systems of inequality and not as a characteristic of a community (Norton-Smith et al., 2016). The term “social vulnerability” is used within the background section since it is widely utilized by various organizations and allowed for a thorough look into previous research. The term “underserved communities” is used in place of the term “socially vulnerable communities”. 

There are many types of social vulnerability indexes (SVI) in existence. Factors used to determine social vulnerability have been used to create indexes that can be mapped to visualize areas of higher vulnerability – or areas that have been historically underserved. These social vulnerability indexes utilize data from the U.S. census and community surveys, which allow the maps to be national. 

There is a lack of tools which connect social vulnerability indexes to climate change factors. In addition, the current SVIs are on a broad scale and the data included does not necessarily represent individual communities. Previous work has also shown that SVIs can aggregate data in a way that results in the outcome not accurately representing a community’s needs. Specifically, when national mapping tools are applied to Hawaiʻi, the large boundaries and type of data used does not accurately capture the landscape and social issues of the islands. Understanding coastal communities is key to effectively plan adaptation and mitigation measures for sea level rise. Applying a single sea level rise plan to all coastal communities generalizes these communities and ignores the social and cultural aspects which make each community unique.

A goal of this two-year project is to use the concept of social vulnerability to identify communities with a disproportionate risk to sea level rise and coastal erosion hazards. Social, economic, and demographic factors will be used in a spatial analysis to create a mapping tool that helps identify Hawaiʻi's underserved coastal communities. The creation of this mapping tool will look to solve issues that have arisen with the use of national mapping tools in Hawaiʻi. Another goal of the project is to further understand communities’ needs to adapt to sea level rise and its associated hazards. An interview section will be conducted within identified communities to ground truth the results of the created map and give individuals of the community the opportunity to define their needs and concerns of adapting to sea level rise.  

This project will look to answer the questions:

1) Which coastal communities are at a disproportionate risk to long-term sea-level rise and coastal erosion hazards? 

2) How will sea level rise unequally impact Hawaiʻi’s coastal communities? 

3) What are other factors that could affect communities’ risk to sea level rise and coastal erosion hazards? 

4) What do communities need to adapt to sea level rise in the future? 

The project outcomes include: 1) A spatial analysis to overlay sea level rise with social, economic, and demographic factors to identify underserved communities at risk to coastal hazards 2) Interviews to understand communities’ needs and concerns to adapt to coastal hazards. 

This is a two-year project (2022-2024), supported by the  NOAA Coastal Management Fellowship , and intends to support the Hawaiʻi Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program to guide future work to apply for funding opportunities and to inform equitable policies for coastal communities in Hawaiʻi. The project includes several components: The creation of a Hawaiʻi specific mapping tool and an interview portion that will act as an initial outreach method, provide more granular data about the communities, and allow community members to define their needs through their lived experiences. In addition to the spatial analysis data, the knowledge learned from the interviews will be important to incorporate into future sea level rise planning. At the completion of this fellowship, information gathered from this project will be compiled into a final document in August 2024.

Sources

• Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. (n.d.). At A Glance: CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/at-a-glance_svi.html.
• Coffman, M., Shen, S., & Schjervheim, M. (2022). Social Vulnerability to Climate Change in Hawaiʻi.
• Hawaiʻi Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission. 2017. Hawaiʻi Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report. Prepared by Tetra Tech, Inc. and the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, under the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources Contract No: 64064.
• Hawaiʻi Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission. 2021. State of Hawaiʻi Sea Level Rise Viewer. Version 1.07. Prepared by the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) for the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program and the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, with funding from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management Award No. NA16NOS4730016 and under the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources Contract No. 64064. http://hawaiisealevelriseviewer.org . Accessed [October 27, 2022].
• Norton-Smith, K., Lynn, K., Chief, K., Cozzetto, K., Donatuto, J., Redsteer, M. H., ... & Whyte, K. P. (2016). Climate change and indigenous peoples: a synthesis of current impacts and experiences. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station 
• Sweet, W.V., R.E. Kopp, R.E. Weaver, J. Obeysekera, R.M. Horton, E.R. Thieler, and C. Zervas. 2017. Global and Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States. Silver Spring, MD: NOAA Technical Report NOS CO-OPS 083.