Connecting coastal communities to share knowledge and resources for marine hazard risk reduction: HVSI online platform

Numerous quantitative indices have been developed for measuring the vulnerability of communities to natural hazards. However, such indicator-based approaches are typically used for identifying highly vulnerable communities to assist in resource prioritization. This study developed a new approach to use vulnerability indicators to identify places that are similarly vulnerable, rather than the most vulnerable communities. The premise is that learning from other communities’ experiences and practices to reduce disaster vulnerability is important for fostering local and regional resilience. The approach aims to promote connections between communities that are similarly vulnerable to coastal hazards. To identify similar communities, the Hazard Vulnerability Similarity Index (HVSI) was developed, which quantifies similarity in terms of a series of 25 indicators that characterizes the communities’ economic, social, built-environment, natural environment, and institutional capital. As a pilot application, the HVSI is applied to 50 most populous communities in the Strait of Georgia region. To ensure the relevance and usability of the work, we hosted a workshop to engage over 30 practitioners involved in vulnerability reduction efforts in the region to refine the selection of indicators and the design of an online platform. The result is made accessible to communities in the platform. While the data for many indicators are from publicly available sources, the data for the institutional capital indicators was mostly collected through a survey with officials of the study communities. Besides identifying communities that are similarly vulnerable to the community of interest, the user can also find out what vulnerability reduction actions those communities has taken in the platform’s community profiles. Therefore the platform aims to promote network building and knowledge and resource sharing in the region. This talk will highlight our participatory processes during the development of the HVSI platform, its specific features, and the preliminary results on platform usage