Project Overview
Vermont is expected to experience more frequent and more intense flooding. Often, groups who are socially vulnerable are more prone to flood hazard. This project identified “Vulnerable Frontline Vermont Communities” (VFVCs), towns who are both at risk for flooding, and experience high social vulnerability in Vermont. Flood risk was mapped with the Rapid Infrastructure Flooding Tool (PNNL, 2023), drone imagery, and E911 building footprints (VT E911, 2025). Towns with high social vulnerability were identified by mapping the agreement between environmental justice screening tools; EJScreen (EPA, 2024), the Climate Economic Justice Screening Tool (White House, 2024), the VT Environmental Disparities Index (Ren, 2023), and Municipal Climate Change Vulnerability Indicators List (VT ANR, 2025). Hot-spot analysis was performed to identify the towns that met the criteria to be a VFVC. An advisory board that included stakeholders in flood resiliency in Vermont were consulted throughout the project, and participated in a validation activity to ground-truth the VFVCs. In addition, a case study was held in Barre City, to evaluate the results at the community level. These data can be used to inform stakeholders in flood mitigation of strong candidates for equitable flood hazard mitigation in Vermont. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Geological Survey under Grant/Cooperative Agreement No. G21AP10630-00 to the Vermont Water Resources and Lake Studies Center.
Objectives
This project had three objectives: 1) Identify communities who experience heightened social vulnerability given the agreement of four existing environmental justice screening tools. 2) Map flood risk from the Great Vermont Flood of July 2023. 3) Identify communities who experience high socially vulnerability and are at risk for flood hazard. Disclaimer: The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions of policies of the U.S. Geological Survey. Mention of any trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Dataset Availability
Downloadable: 1 dataset
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Status - Active
Start date: 2024-09-01
Anticipated end date: 2025-08-31
Study Area
