You will now examine one particularly impactful recent flood event in the Mid-So

Question

You will now examine one particularly impactful recent flood event in the Mid-South: the flood of 2011. To complete this exercise, you will be interacting with various data layers in Google Earth. Your instructor will provide directions for interacting with this platform. Researchers and practitioners use the Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) to measure the vulnerability of communities to natural disasters. The index synthesizes socioeconomic variables, such as race, income, and educational attainment, which research indicates contribute to a reduction in a community's ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from hazards. In the Google Earth map view, census tracts that are most vulnerable to hazards are red while those that are least vulnerable are blue. Examine the SoVI layer for Shelby County in Google Earth and overlay it with the flood extent layer. Discuss the vulnerability of the census tracts impacted by the 2011 flood. Educating citizens of the dangers posed by floodwaters is a critically important aspect of reducing disaster losses. Recall that FEMA publishes flood zone maps that delineate flood risk in American communities. Examine the FEMA flood zones layer provided in Google Earth. Does the community you live in have a flood hazard? If there is a hazard, were you aware of that hazard before examining the flood maps? Evaluate the efforts of leaders in your community to educate citizens of their risk to flooding and suggest some actions that could be taken to educate others.

Explanation / Answer

1.Social vulnerability index is the capacity of the communities to recover from the natural disaster or human induced disaster. Reducing the social vulnerability can decrease the suffering as well as economic loss. The social vulnerability index uses the US census variables and help the local officials in identifying local communities who need any kind of support to recover from the disaster.

2. Yes the community we live in is a flood hazard since it is a low lying area. Before examining the flood map by FEMA we were not aware of the flood risk. FEMA is the official public source for obtaining information about the flood hazard. Besides that it also identifies flood risks and also provides states and communities data related to flood risks in order to mitigate the risk. It also provides data related to river data, rainfall and topographic surveys, storm tides and hydrological analyses. The leaders of the community can be doctors, scientists, engineers etc. They can educate people about the risk and the actions to be taken to mitigate the risk. They can make educate people to not panic with the situation and listen carefully to the radio or other warnings issued by the governments. They can evacuate people to a safe position and communicate the government to ask for help like food clothes etc.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse Y
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.