Assessing Social Vulnerability through a Local Lens: An Integrated Geovisual Approach

Vulnerability and resilience of coastal communities is increasingly important in the face of sea level rise and severe storms. Situated at the nexus of geographic information systems (GIS) and natural hazard vulnerability, this study compares and integrates a GIS-based approach that produces social vulnerability indexes from census data and a human subject survey-based approach that learns local perceptions of coastal hazards in the aftermath of Hurricanes Matthew and Irma. It applies statistical and geovisual analyses of data from both approaches. We find significant variations in perceptions across the vulnerability spectrum and relate these differences to theories of expert and nonexpert knowledge. It is believed that both sets of results are useful and revealing from different perspectives, although each has its own weaknesses. Integration of both can provide a fuller picture of social vulnerability. To this end, the study demonstrates several geovisualization methods for integration. Key Words: coastal resilience, critical GIS, geovisualization, mixed methods, social vulnerability.