The People, Places, and Things that Keep You Up at Night: Mapping and Defining Vulnerabilities to Hazardous Weather

The Brief Vulnerability Overview Tool (BVOT) is a social-science-derived tool for displaying vulnerability data in the form of GIS layers. These layers are weather-hazard specific, for example, an office may have BVOT layers entitled “Flood,” or “Tornado.” Selected hazard layers may be more specific, such as layers entitled “Coastal Flood,” “Ice Jam,” or even “Wind/Visibility.” Created with flexibility in mind, BVOT layers depend on a weather forecast office’s (WFOs) unique and differing weather and climate concerns. As well as being a tool for displaying vulnerability data related to specific weather hazards, the BVOT is also a method for collecting weather-hazard-specific vulnerability data. The process of building a BVOT is collaborative in nature; NWS WFOs work with partners, such as emergency managers (EMs), to identify and map vulnerabilities that are (1) known vulnerabilities, (2) spatially specific vulnerabilities, and (3) weather-hazard specific vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities that should be on a BVOT, as explained by the research team, should include those “people, places, and things that keep you up at night” when you think about them being impacted by a severe or hazardous weather event. By focusing on those “people, places, and things that keep you up at night” during the mapping process, participating mappers can identify the vulnerabilities that rise above baseline vulnerabilities. That is to say, the BVOT mapping process includes those people, places, and things that, if or when hit by severe or hazardous weather, will result in the loss of lives, property, or commerce.

In this presentation, we will further define vulnerability as it is related to hazardous weather, explain why a one-size fits all approach does not work for mapping vulnerabilities related to hazardous weather, and discuss how understanding these vulnerabilities benefits NWS WFOs through use in training, operations, and impact-based decision support services (IDSS). We also briefly compare the BVOT to other GIS vulnerability datasets, such as the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), which utilizes U.S. Census data to calculate a vulnerability score for census tracts, and FEMA’s Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT), which includes over 100 preloaded layers and contains data on weather hazards and risks, as well as the most current census demographic data and infrastructure data. We will explain how the BVOT is different from these other ways to display vulnerability data in the form of weather hazard-specific layers, which can be viewed together with other hazard layers and models in AWIPS. Next, we will present ways in which EMs, NWS forecasters, and warning coordination meteorologists (WCMs) have discussed vulnerabilities during both in-person and online group discussions held with participating NWS WFOs. We will also discuss how researchers explained BVOT vulnerabilities to participants through the lens of the “people, places, and things that keep you up at night.” Finally, this presentation concludes by discussing potential ways in which vulnerability data, in the form of the BVOT and other GIS vulnerability datasets, can be used by WFOs, including: training and onboarding new meteorologists, use by backup WFOs, relationship building with core partners, uses in operations and warning messaging, and IDSS. We argue that by understanding the “people, places, and things” that are most vulnerable to hazardous weather within a CWA, WFOs can provide more targeted communication to the partners they serve.