Utah's Counties: Sensitivity to Water Hazards

This dataset contains important categories (per an extensive literature review) in relation to vulnerability to water hazards within Utah at the County level. Although social and physical vulnerability to water hazards (i.e. flooding) data has been collected extensively in many coastal areas, this is a costly problem in Utah and many other non-coastal areas. The variables shown here are categorized by type and collection method. 1. General data is shown for all Counties in Utah. These are taken from the 2010 Census. 2. Literature suggests that there are various approaches which local governments take to mitigate the impacts of flood events. Indicators of these approaches are captured in the section entitled Web Survey. A web survey was conducted of each County. The data includes evaluations of content including water hazard education, land use restrictions described in the code, freeboard requirements, and emergency operations plan implementations. 3. A social vulnerability index as created by the University of South Carolina is shown here. More information can be found at their website. 4. Event data is summarized for number of events and estimated monetary damages. This NOAA dataset helps us understand the nature of past experience and physical exposure to water hazards. Utah's Hazard Mitigation Plan 2014 includes a flood vulnerability score. It is included here for reference but is not critiqued as part of this dataset. 5. Fema has modeling software known as HAZUS which can be used to estimate damages for certain hazards including flooding. A county level summary is included here with estimated of building damage and exposure. 6. Dams are a man-made structure which play a part on flood management and can also create additional exposure. 7. Much of social vulnerability and disaster management should consider those with special needs. Census and the Division of Hazard Mitigation of Utah help us understand more of this important context.

Together these data paint a picture of Utah's vulnerabilities to flood hazards and potential exposure to other natural hazard events. Place level statistics were also collected and add insight at that spatial scale. they can be found here: http://repository.iutahepscor.org/dataset/hazard-mitigation-and-capacity-in-utah-census-places. The variables are different as prescribed in the readme file there.

Further details of the data collection methods can be found in the data dictionary within the spreadsheet workbook or in the ReadMe file included as a resource here.