April 2023
Liton Chakraborty
The socioeconomic status index, created by Chakraborty et al. (2020), assessed the spatial patterns of social vulnerability at the census tract level to deconstruct the social liability of risk across Canadian neighbourhoods. Research shows that varying scales of aggregating census-based population data can produce different results and conclusions in different geographical contexts. As social vulnerability changes over space and time, understanding the variability of vulnerable populations exposed to climatic hazards helps develop equitable and sustainable climate change adaptation plans and disaster risk management programs. This study presents the first nationwide evidence of the spatial and temporal patterns in social vulnerability to flood hazards across Canada by incorporating the impact of scalar, variables, and temporal changes on the index construction. This exploratory study uses a subset of the 2016 and 2021 national census variables representing racial/ethnic, demographic, and socioeconomic characteristics of Canadians to calculate social vulnerability indices at two geographic scales, including dissemination areas and census subdivisions that cover Canada’s all provinces and three territories. The study compared the results from the variant of vulnerability indices over time and across Indigenous vs non-Indigenous communities, most remote vs least remote areas based on the 2021 index of remoteness, large urban centres, province/territory, and national levels. Consistent with the contemporary US-based literature, the study shows considerable variability of the social vulnerability of Canadians over time and space, reflecting transformations in population size, economic conditions, and sociodemographic characteristics across communities and places. These results would help improve user confidence in understanding the utility of social vulnerability indices in designing effective adaptation, disaster mitigation, and emergency management plans in high-risk and priority areas that foster social resilience to hazards and disasters in Canada.