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An Empirical Analysis of Association between Socioeconomic Factors and Communities’ Exposure to Natural Hazards

Author

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  • Mohammad Ilbeigi

    (Department of Civil, Environmental, and Ocean Engineering (CEOE), Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA)

  • Sarath Chandra K. Jagupilla

    (Department of Civil, Environmental, and Ocean Engineering (CEOE), Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA)

Abstract

In today’s urban environments with complex design and configurations, heterogeneous spatial clusters of communities with different socioeconomic characteristics may result in disproportionate exposure of some groups of citizens to natural hazards. The objective of this study was to compare the associations between communities’ socioeconomic characteristics and exposure to different types of natural hazards in New York City (NYC) to examine whether commonly accepted indicators of social vulnerability are associated with similar levels of exposure across various natural hazards. First, we collected socioeconomic data (e.g., population, median income, unemployment rate) at a zip code level of granularity provided by the United States Census Bureau. Next, we identified and gathered spatial data for coastal storms, flooding, extreme heat, and pandemic disease in NYC. We then conducted a pairwise Kendall’s τ-b test to compare the associations. The outcomes showed that the significance and direction of the associations depend on the type of natural hazard. Particularly, the results indicated that zip codes with lower socioeconomic factors and greater percentage of minority ethnicities are exposed disproportionately to extreme heat and COVID-19. On the other hand, zip codes with higher percentage of areas prone to flooding have relatively higher socioeconomic factors. Furthermore, the results did not show any statistically significant association between socioeconomic factors and exposure to coastal storm inundations. The outcomes of this study will help decision makers design and implement better optimized and effective emergency preparedness plans by prioritizing their target areas based on socioeconomic factors in order to enhance social justice.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohammad Ilbeigi & Sarath Chandra K. Jagupilla, 2020. "An Empirical Analysis of Association between Socioeconomic Factors and Communities’ Exposure to Natural Hazards," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-13, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:16:p:6342-:d:395602
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