Block Group Social Vulnerability to Storm Surge Flooding: Case Study of East Little Havana-Miami

Coastal regions are vulnerable to natural hazards such as storm surge flooding. Increased population growth and wealth in coastal areas have led to swelling costs associated with flood-related damages, evidence in Miami-Dade County, Florida, across the decades. While the federal government and states continue placing early warning systems to provide resilience and adaptation strategies, lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina indicated the social predisposition to hazards is more dynamic and rather negatively tend towards poor and minority neighborhoods. This study used East Little Havana (ELH) as a case study site to assess social vulnerability to storm surge flooding. The study used GIS, demographic and socioeconomic data to perform principal component analysis of the block-groups in ELH. The result indicated that average household sizes, average income, and median age are the primary determinant of social vulnerability within the neighborhood. A SoVI index developed from the scores of the components indicated that low vulnerability areas are along the Miami River, encompassing some parts of Downtown Miami. Very high and high vulnerability areas on the other hand, include higher-density neighborhoods where residents tend to have larger family sizes, and low income. In all, the result of the study agreed with earlier studies, which cited income, family sizes, and age as some of the major determinants of social vulnerability in the US.

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ISBN
978-1-944214-31-9