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Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Tool (RVAT)
Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Steps Economic Analysis and Extended Discussion Print VersionWhy would I do this analysis?Some of the most devastating disaster impacts to a community include the loss of income associated with business interruption and the loss of jobs as a result of business closures. This analysis focuses on determining the hazard vulnerabilities of centers of economic activity, and the largest employers within the community. The existence of primary centers of activity within the major economic sectors and the largest employers within a community are vital to its sustainable economic development. Therefore, it is essential to identify the potential negative impacts to them, which will enable the community to develop and prioritize potential hazard mitigation measures to eliminate or reduce these potential impacts. Give me an example of something I might do in this analysis.Along with the risk and vulnerability assessment working group, which should include representatives from the business community, you have identified and completed an inventory of key centers of economic activity and the largest employers in your community. The key centers of economic activity combined with the largest employers should represent the businesses and industries that are vital to your local economy, and possibly to the state and national economy as well.
What are my steps?
What data will I need?General overview:
Detailed community economic information:
Where can I obtain these data and information?It is important to have a general overview of your local economy when you first begin this analysis. Information is widely available to assist you with characterizing your local economy. Several good sources of information include the Economic Census and County Business Patterns conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Economic Census data are typically updated every 5 years and County Business Patterns data are updated annually. In addition to having a general overview of your local economy, it is important to break this information down further to identify the locations of centers of economic activity and the largest employers. For data to accomplish this task, consult your local Chamber of Commerce and local officials. Even if digital (GIS) data are not available, it is still possible to complete an analysis by working with the Chamber of Commerce and local officials and by using transparencies overlaid on paper base maps. Who do I need to work with? What agencies can help me locate the necessary data and information?To access many of these governmental and organizational Web sites, view the Links page. Local (county or municipality level) — Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development, City/County Administration, Planning, local businesses, and others. Regional (state level) — Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development, Department of Commerce, Planning, and others. National (federal level) — U.S. Census, and others. Potential Partners/Stakeholders ListLocal (county or municipality)
Regional (state or states)
National (federal)
Extended DiscussionObjective(s):Map centers of economic activity and largest employers; identify most vulnerable areas important to economy; prioritize list of economic areas for detailed operational and structural analysis Purpose:Target priority economic areas for Mitigation Opportunities Analysis Primary Steps:
DescriptionAn economic vulnerability assessment examines the vulnerability of your local economy to the impacts of a hazard or group of hazards. Analyzing your economy's susceptibility to the negative impacts associated with hazards can be accomplished by looking at spatial relationships between your centers of economic activity as well as your largest employers, and the location of hazard risk areas. For example, an area generally containing higher concentrations of businesses critical to your economic vitality located in a high hurricane-storm-surge risk area may experience negative impacts during a hurricane. If and when this occurs, several key businesses may be forced to shut down, either temporarily or permanently, thus causing a large portion of your community to be jobless. By focusing on these areas, communities can work with local businesses to identify hazard mitigation measures that help to reduce their structural and operational vulnerabilities and create a more sustainable economy. Develop a general overview of your local economyUtilize a variety of resources including the U.S. Census Bureau and your local Chamber of Commerce to develop a general overview of your local economy. This information will be useful for identifying centers of economic activity and the largest employers within your community, both of which are critical to the vitality of your local economy. Hazard impacts in these locations could have major impacts on your local economy. The table below, from the 1997 Economic Census, shows the type of information available for conducting a general overview of your local economy.
Map centers of economic activity and the largest employers in your communityThe information from the general overview can then be utilized to develop maps of the centers of economic activity. In order to do this you will need to utilize information such as land use maps. For example, by knowing that manufacturing is one of the largest employment sectors in the community, you can utilize land use maps to identify where there are concentrations of manufacturing businesses.
Working with your community's Chamber of Commerce or other local officials, identify the location of the largest employers in your community. The number of entities you wish to identify will vary from community to community based on the size of the community and the number of businesses within the community. Primarily, the list should be inclusive enough to ensure that all businesses vital to your economy are included, when combined with the locations of centers of economic activity developed previously. Identify the intersection of hazard risk areas with centers of economic activity and largest employersOverlay the locations of centers of economic activity and largest employers with hazard risk areas to determine which of these vital elements of your economy are vulnerable to hazards.
Based on their proximity to high risk areas, develop a prioritized list of centers of economic activity and largest employers to conduct further detailed analysesConduct a general inventory of those centers of economic activity that are located in the high-risk areas. There are several methods that can be used to accomplish this task. In some cases, communities may need to conduct windshield surveys to assess the number and type of vulnerable facilities located in the high-risk areas. In other cases, information may be available in a GIS format, such as a parcel-level database, that could simplify the task. The list of facilities should then be combined with the list of largest employers located in high-risk areas. The combined list should then be prioritized based on level of risk (highest risk scores) and potential impact. Facilities more critical to the local economy, such as the largest employer in the county, should be listed before others. Table 1. Sample of a prioritized list of centers of economic activity and largest employers located in high risk areas.
Use results to educate vulnerable businesses and industries about their vulnerabilities and encourage them to conduct the detailed analysisThe results of the analysis should be utilized to help educate local businesses and industries about their operational and structural vulnerabilities to hazards. The information from the analysis should then be used to encourage them to conduct a detailed analysis of their facilities, similar to the in-depth procedures described in the critical facilities analysis. The businesses and industries identified on the prioritized list should also be targeted as potential hazard mitigation partners. The majority of hazard mitigation funding programs have very strict rules regarding the use of public funds to mitigate private facilities, and many restrict the use all together. Therefore, it is important to utilize the results to encourage private businesses and industries to implement their own hazard mitigation measures. |
Now
that you have these businesses and industries identified, their locations can
be combined with hazard risk data to assess their vulnerabilities. This information
can then be used to encourage the most vulnerable businesses and industries to
perform in-depth structural and operational analyses. These analyses should be
done similarly to the in-depth analyses conducted on the most vulnerable 
