Coastal Services Center

---

Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Steps Economic Analysis Extended Discussion

---

Objective(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:

1. Develop a general overview of your local economy
2. Map centers of economic activity and the largest employers in your community
3. Identify the intersection of hazard risk areas with centers of economic activity and largest employers
4. Based on their proximity to high-risk areas, develop a prioritized list of centers of economic activity and largest employers to conduct further detailed analyses
5. Use results to educate vulnerable businesses and industries about their vulnerabilities and encourage them to conduct the detailed analyses

Description

An 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 economy

Utilize 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.

Figure 1. 1997 Economic Census — Summary Statistics for Brevard County, Florida.

Map centers of economic activity and the largest employers in your community

The 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.

Figure 2. Example of a land use map.

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 employers

Overlay 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.

Figure 3. Overlay of centers of economic activity and largest employers with hazard risk areas.

Based on their proximity to high risk areas, develop a prioritized list of centers of economic activity and largest employers to conduct further detailed analyses

Conduct 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.

Priority	Facility Type	Employment	Annual Revenue (in millions of dollars)	Risk Score
1	Manufacturing	650	100	16
2	Services	250	50	16
3	Services	500	20	15
4	Professional	75	8.5	15
5	Retail	125	6	15
6	Wholesale	50	6.5	14

Use results to educate vulnerable businesses and industries about their vulnerabilities and encourage them to conduct the detailed analysis

The 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.

Return to top