Florida Vulnerability Assessment

Vulnerability assessments serve as a tool to identify populations and geographic regions that may be at risk so that communities can become more prepared and resilient to hazards related to extreme weather and climate.

The Florida BRACE Program collaborated with the University of South Carolina Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute (HVRI) to produce a vulnerability assessment for seven priority hazards.

Existing climate scenarios project heat, drought, and sea level rise vulnerability to the year 2100 with a high, medium, and low range of outcomes for these three hazards. Hurricane winds, storm surge, flooding, and wildland fire are more difficult to project into the future due to a significantly smaller geographic impact. For these four hazards, probability indexes were used in conjunction with historical patterns to explain possible changes to Florida’s long-term weather.

To quantify social and medical vulnerability to these priority hazards, HVRI employed the Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) and the Medical Vulnerability Index (MedVI). These indexes were used in conjunction with hazard maps to visually display the intersection of the social vulnerability to hazards as well as the medical vulnerability to hazards throughout the state.