Update and amend CalOES’ Prepare California Initiative to ensure equitable access for socially vulnerable and deep-seated landslide-exposed communities

Summary

The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES)’s Prepare California Initiative provides socially vulnerable and natural hazard-exposed communities the opportunity to invest in their own disaster resilience. Through two grant programs, Prepare California provides vulnerable communities the resources necessary to build local resilience, improve hazard mitigation infrastructure and disaster protocol, as well as increase public awareness of disaster risk in the face of escalating (and climate change-induced) natural disaster threat. To qualify for Prepare
California, communities must classify as highly socially vulnerable according to the CDC/ATSDR’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) (2018 model), and be exposed to significant or multiple natural hazards. However, SVI 2018 is outdated both in terms of its input census data and in its model design. While CalOES’ multi-hazard criteria does address many of California’s current and escalating disaster threats (fire, flood, earthquake, drought and extreme heat), it lacks consideration for deep-seated landslides. To maximize Prepare California’s effectiveness in an upcoming round of funding (2023-2024), CalOES must swiftly revise its eligibility criteria by updating its Hazard Exposure and Social Vulnerability Map to the CDC/ATSDR’s most recent model (SVI 2020). Additionally, CalOES must include deepseated landslide susceptibility in its multi-hazard criteria to ensure all vulnerable communities exposed to significant disaster threat are not overlooked.

Authorship

This brief was prepared by Kallee Bareket-Shavit (kbshavit@ucdavis.edu)