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Title A GIS-Based Characterization of Flood Vulnerable Residential Communities
Abstract Horry County, located on the coast of South Carolina, is an area that is very susceptible to flooding due to storm surge and rainfall from hurricanes. Flooding is common issue that current residents have to face and as the county continues to have an influx of new residents it is quite possible more people are being placed in vulnerable areas. In addition to being vulnerable physically there are number of social factors that can make residents vulnerable as well. Some of the factors that needs to be considered for calculating social vulnerability include age, sex, income, and race to name a few. Using GIS we can identify which demographics are affected the most by flood inundation. Analyzation of water bodies and FEMA flood hazard zones gives a general idea of which regions are physically vulnerable. Using ACS data we can begin to characterize the populations of the census block groups and residencies within them. In our finding we saw that a large portion of the people being classified of being vulnerable were 65 and older, and did not own a vehicle. These are factors that can severely limit a person’s ability to cope with natural disaster and impedes on the ability to recover from such events. Our hopes are that through this study we can provide useful insights into areas with high social vulnerability and aid decision makers in disaster planning and recovery.
Faculty Advisor: Susan Bergeron, Politics and Geography
Graduate Student Mentor: Michael Bunker, Computing Sciences
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