Property Prices and Disaster (In)Justice: Fifty Years of Demographic Change in Hawai’i County’s Lava Hazard Zones
(2022) VBRM15 20221Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety
- Abstract
- While there is a degree of homogeneity in the physical impact that volcanic hazards can cause, the experience of volcanic risk and the politics of exposure are far from equal. The purpose of this thesis is to expand on research citing population growth and property price dynamics as factors encouraging settlement in the Mauna Loa and Kīlauea lava hazard zones. It seeks to determine if high-hazard areas have disproportionately elevated populations of socially vulnerable groups when compared to less hazardous regions. Using U.S. census data from 1970-2020 and adapted U.S. Geological Survey lava hazard zones, it analyzes how seven indicators of social vulnerability have changed in relation to lava hazard zones and fluctuations in median... (More)
- While there is a degree of homogeneity in the physical impact that volcanic hazards can cause, the experience of volcanic risk and the politics of exposure are far from equal. The purpose of this thesis is to expand on research citing population growth and property price dynamics as factors encouraging settlement in the Mauna Loa and Kīlauea lava hazard zones. It seeks to determine if high-hazard areas have disproportionately elevated populations of socially vulnerable groups when compared to less hazardous regions. Using U.S. census data from 1970-2020 and adapted U.S. Geological Survey lava hazard zones, it analyzes how seven indicators of social vulnerability have changed in relation to lava hazard zones and fluctuations in median property prices. This study determined that there was a notable discrepancy between hazard zones for low-income and unemployment indicators, and median property values, with more hazardous areas consistently reporting higher percentages of socially vulnerable groups and lower prices. A Pearson correlation indicated negative correlation between all indicators and median property value 1990-2020, demonstrating that lower property prices not only trended with high hazard zones, but were also correlated with elevated levels of traditionally vulnerable groups. This prolonged disproportionate exposure of marginalized populations to inundation risk presents a concern of disaster injustice that has the potential to be exacerbated or alleviated by risk management initiatives including the Hawaiian Property Insurance Association and the Voluntary Housing Buyout Program. The themes presented in this volcanic study area can carry over to the climate justice field. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- As the global population increases, more and more people are living near active volcanoes, putting themselves at risk if the volcanoes erupt. While anybody living close to a volcano can be affected by an eruption, not everybody has the same access to resources necessary to be able to evacuate or rebuild in the event of an eruption. The purpose of this thesis is to expand on previous research that discussed how population growth and low property prices resulted in many people living in the Mauna Loa and Kīlauea lava hazard zones in Hawai’i, which led to widespread destruction when Kīlauea erupted in 2018. It further seeks to explore if there are more people part of typically socially vulnerable groups living in the most hazardous areas... (More)
- As the global population increases, more and more people are living near active volcanoes, putting themselves at risk if the volcanoes erupt. While anybody living close to a volcano can be affected by an eruption, not everybody has the same access to resources necessary to be able to evacuate or rebuild in the event of an eruption. The purpose of this thesis is to expand on previous research that discussed how population growth and low property prices resulted in many people living in the Mauna Loa and Kīlauea lava hazard zones in Hawai’i, which led to widespread destruction when Kīlauea erupted in 2018. It further seeks to explore if there are more people part of typically socially vulnerable groups living in the most hazardous areas around Mauna Loa and Kīlauea when compared to the less hazardous regions.
This thesis focuses on seven demographic characteristics that have been previously shown to correlate with higher levels of social vulnerability. It uses U.S. census data from 1970-2020 to analyze how the percentage of the population in these categories changed over time in relation to the lava hazard zones. Median property prices were also tracked over this same time period to understand the price differences between the lava hazard zones and to study the relationship between property prices and the seven demographic indicators of social vulnerability.
While all seven indicators were tracked, this study found that the percentage of the population living below the poverty line and the percentage of the population that was unemployed was consistently higher in the more hazardous zones when compared to the other categories. It additionally showed that the median property prices differed between the hazard zones, with lower prices found in the most hazardous zone for the whole time period. Finally, this study demonstrated that lower property prices, were correlated with higher percentages of traditionally vulnerable populations, and this representation decreased when property prices rose.
The fact that these trends lasted over the whole fifty-year time period presents a concern that traditionally vulnerable groups have been more exposed to volcanic risk than the general population in the study region. Risk management strategies such as the Hawaiian Property Insurance Association and the Voluntary Housing Buyout Program have the potential to either prolong these trends, or work to even out the risk exposure across society in pursuit of equitable risk management. The themes presented in this study, especially those around injustice, can be applied to other hazards and other fields, such as flooding and climate justice. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9084540
- author
- Mauro, AnaCapri LU
- supervisor
-
- Per Becker LU
- organization
- course
- VBRM15 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Social Vulnerability, Volcanic Hazards, Disaster Justice, Risk Governance, Temporal Analysis, Mauna Loa, Kīlauea
- language
- English
- id
- 9084540
- date added to LUP
- 2022-06-08 11:22:10
- date last changed
- 2022-06-08 11:22:10
@misc{9084540,
abstract = {{While there is a degree of homogeneity in the physical impact that volcanic hazards can cause, the experience of volcanic risk and the politics of exposure are far from equal. The purpose of this thesis is to expand on research citing population growth and property price dynamics as factors encouraging settlement in the Mauna Loa and Kīlauea lava hazard zones. It seeks to determine if high-hazard areas have disproportionately elevated populations of socially vulnerable groups when compared to less hazardous regions. Using U.S. census data from 1970-2020 and adapted U.S. Geological Survey lava hazard zones, it analyzes how seven indicators of social vulnerability have changed in relation to lava hazard zones and fluctuations in median property prices. This study determined that there was a notable discrepancy between hazard zones for low-income and unemployment indicators, and median property values, with more hazardous areas consistently reporting higher percentages of socially vulnerable groups and lower prices. A Pearson correlation indicated negative correlation between all indicators and median property value 1990-2020, demonstrating that lower property prices not only trended with high hazard zones, but were also correlated with elevated levels of traditionally vulnerable groups. This prolonged disproportionate exposure of marginalized populations to inundation risk presents a concern of disaster injustice that has the potential to be exacerbated or alleviated by risk management initiatives including the Hawaiian Property Insurance Association and the Voluntary Housing Buyout Program. The themes presented in this volcanic study area can carry over to the climate justice field.}},
author = {{Mauro, AnaCapri}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Property Prices and Disaster (In)Justice: Fifty Years of Demographic Change in Hawai’i County’s Lava Hazard Zones}},
year = {{2022}},
}