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Project 2: Social Vulnerability

Introduction

http://walton.ifas.ufl.edu/community/hurricane-info.shtml

For Project 2, our group decided to do an introductory overview of the concept of Social Vulnerability. Every day we hear about disasters around the world, and some of us may even donate time and money to help with the relief effort. The truth is, humanity is vulnerable to the whim's of nature, but some people are more vulnerable than others. We want to find out what makes these people vulnerable. There is a lot of data that has been collected by the United States Census Bureau that deals specifically with Social Demographics. Within this data lies many clues to the vulnerability of a population to a particular disaster. Because we live in the South, our primary focus is going to be on hurricanes, but one can be vulnerable to far more than just hurricanes. In fact, many potential disasters are direct causes of man's interference. No matter where you live, or where you are, there is always a risk. Just how vulnerable are you? Let's find out.

Social Vulnerability

Social Vulnerability is a rather complex concept, mainly because it deals with the behaviors and lifestyles of people! However, with a few assumptions and some generalization, we can learn more about the potential vulnerability of a population. Click on the Social Vulnerability button to learn about what Social Vulnerability is and how its calculated.

Factors of Social Vulnerability

There are several key socio-economic factors that give us a perspective on vulnerability. One of the most difficult tasks when studying and determining social vulnerability is to determine whether a socio-economic variable adds to the population's resilience, or makes them more vulnerable. Click on the Factors of Vulnerability button to see some of the most important variables, and some controversial ones.

Resources

There is quite a bit of discussion going on about Social Vulnerability, what it is, and what it means. We have a list of resources that we used when conducting this study and provided some useful links to check out on our Resources page.

Gallery

Disasters are devastating. Take a look at some before/after photos and powerful imagery that shows just how devastating they can be on our Gallery page.