Ashley Samonisky, VPC’s Project Manager and Lead Planner, has been invited to participate in a focus group sponsored by the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS (NAPSG) and Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), to discuss various social vulnerability, resilience, and risk indices and datasets currently available to the emergency management community. The indices under review include the: Community Resilience Indicator Analysis (CRIA); Social Vulnerability Index for the United States (SoVI); and Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC). NAPSG hopes to better understand these different risk, resilience, and vulnerability indices, and to develop guidance tools to help the emergency management community match their planning and operations needs with specific indices. The goal is to assist this community and their geospatial staff in quickly understanding what indices are available, the data and methodologies behind them, and their suitability for use in risk assessment, planning, and other preparedness projects.

Ms. Samonisky regularly works with small, rural communities with limited GIS, data analytics, and capacity building capabilities. “The incorporation of these indices into their planning processes would help alleviate some of those issues. The question becomes, which index to use, and when.” “It is my hope that by participating in the focus group, I am able to get a better understanding of these resources myself, so that I can recommend their use to clients in the future” Ms. Samonisky said.

By carefully reviewing each of the indices available, asking critical questions of the index stewards, and participating in index demonstrations, the focus group will allow NAPSG to develop in-depth guidance to make risk, resilience, and vulnerability indices and data more consumable to the average planner and emergency manager.

For more information on NAPSG click here.

For more information on Ms. Samonisky, or her work in emergency management and hazard mitigation, click here.