Using Re-scaled Resilience Screening Index Results and Location Quotients for Socio-Ecological Characterizations in...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Sociology
• Economics

Background:

• Community resilience to natural hazards is crucial for socio-ecological impacts and policy.
• Nationally consistent measures are needed for broad policy, while local assessments target resources.
• The Climate Resilience Index (CRSI) was developed to assess U.S. county resilience (2000-2015).

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a re-scaled application of the CRSI for U.S. coastal and shoreline counties.
• To combine re-scaled CRSI with Location Quotients (LQ) for a holistic vulnerability assessment.
• To provide relative resilience assessments for coastal regions to identify strengths and weaknesses.

Main Methods:

• Re-scaled the CRSI using domain scores specific to U.S. coastal/shoreline counties within eight coastal regions.
• Calculated Location Quotients (LQ) >1.0 for counties with high employment dependence on ocean economy sectors.
• Integrated re-scaled CRSI and LQ values for a comprehensive analysis of coastal vulnerability and resilience.

Main Results:

• Presented re-scaled CRSI values for Gulf of Mexico (GOM) region counties/parishes.
• Highlighted counties with high LQ values, indicating significant ocean economy dependence.
• Demonstrated that combining re-scaled CRSI and LQ provides a more nuanced understanding of coastal resilience.

Conclusions:

• The combined CRSI and LQ approach offers a more holistic picture of vulnerability and resilience in U.S. coastal shoreline counties.
• Relative resilience assessments for coastal regions are valuable for identifying specific strengths and weaknesses.
• This methodology can be adapted to other geographies based on population, hazards, and economic factors.