Feature Article: Rethinking Race and Ethnicity as Disaster Risk Factors
RE TH I N KI NG RACE A ND ET HNIC ITY AS DI SASTE R RI SK FACTORS : A Critique of Social Vulnerability Indices
NORA LOUISE SCHWALLER Nora Louise Schwaller is a PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in
the Department of City and Regional Planning, and a registered architect in the state of North
Carolina. Her research interests focus on migration, climate change adaptation, and equitable
recoveries.
JORDAN BRANHAM Jordan Branham is a PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Department of City and Regional Planning, with a specialization in land use and environmental
planning. His research interests center around two major areas: coastal climate adaptation
and land use planning.
ATTICUS JARAMILLO Atticus Jaramillo is a PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the
Department of City and Regional Planning, with a specialization in housing and community
development planning. His research focuses on federal housing policy, neighborhood inequality, and residential mobility behavior. MAI THI NGUYEN Dr. Mai Thi Nguyen teaches in the Housing and Community Development specialization. Her
research focuses on housing policy, social and spatial inequality, and resilient communities. She has worked as the MURAP Program Director. She has also served as the Director of New Faculty Programs at the Institute for Arts and Humanities. Dr. Nguyen has recently accepted a
role to be the new Director of the Design Lab at the University of California-San Diego.
ABSTR ACT Problem Approach & Findings As hazards become more prevalent in the era of climate change, there have been a number of initiatives to develop ‘big data’ indices to define areas most at risk. Across a number of these indices, place-based vulnerability is attributed, in part, to the racial and ethnic composition of a given neighborhood, city, or region. Within these vulnerability frameworks, areas with high concentrations of black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) are often labeled as most vulnerable. We argue that this practice is problematic because it implies but does not make explicit an important link between BIPOC, vulnerability, and a long history of racialized development, while failing to illuminate and address the underlying causes. 24
