Tracking Heat Vulnerability and Social Vulnerability in Vermont

Understanding our community-level vulnerabilities can help us all prepare for emergencies like floods and heat waves. Vulnerability indicators attempt to shed light on the underlying factors that influence why some communities are more affected by a particular hazard, such as a natural disaster. Vulnerability indicators can serve as planning tools to focus health impact prevention efforts in areas of Vermont at greatest risk. Vulnerability indicators can also be used when there is a disease outbreak or an emergency to identify populations who may need more help with response and recovery.

Heat Vulnerability in Vermont

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The Vermont Heat Vulnerability Index draws together 17 different measures of vulnerability in six different themes: population, socioeconomic, health, environmental, climate, and heat illness. These measures are combined to measure the overall vulnerability of Vermont towns to heat-related events. This is a first step to identify populations that may be more vulnerable to extreme heat, however local knowledge should always be considered when it is available.

The Heat Vulnerability Report provides a description of and rationale for the methods used to produce the Vermont Heat Vulnerability Index. A summary of the description is also available.

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Social Vulnerability in Vermont

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Social vulnerability refers to the resilience of communities when responding to or recovering from threats to public health. The Vermont Social Vulnerability Index is a planning tool to evaluate the relative social vulnerability across the state. It can be used if there is a disease outbreak or in the event of an emergency—either natural or human-caused—to identify populations that may need more help.

The Vermont Social Vulnerability Index draws together 16 different measures of vulnerability in three different themes: socioeconomic, demographic, and housing/transportation. The user guide provides the methods used to produce the index.

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Check out this video to see how to use the Social Vulnerability Index to help identify Vermonters who may need more help in case of a threat to public health.

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Health Equity in Vermont
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