The tool compiles inhabitant census data for a robust set of social, economic and environmental indicators such as housing quality, unemployment rate, social networks and average education levels (amongst others) to analyse the vulnerability of a given community to climate change. The tool provides an index of socio-economic vulnerability for small areas within a region of interest. This data is visualised by spatial vulnerability high-resolution maps that can be used either alone or in tandem with assessments of bio-physical impacts from climate change. They can also be used for awareness-raising and public engagement with citizens.
Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)
Free keywords
Environmental Hazards. Social Vulnerability, Climate Risk, Map
Readiness for use
Tool tested in several case studies
Applications
The SVI-tool has been implemented for all regions, provinces and municipalities in Northern Ireland and Ireland, with a focus on Cork City. The tool has also been implemented in the La Rioja region of Spain, including the city of Logroño and Milano in Italy. Data has also been gathered in Rimini in Italy to begin implementation of the tool in this area.
Cork City is using the tool to plan future city adaptation measures and to raise awareness of how climate impacts affect people differently. Logroño is using the tool to plan future city interventions and as an input for the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) to raise awareness among citizens. Derry City and Strabane District Council are using the tool to prioritise future adaptation activity.
Strengths and weaknesses, comparative added value to other similar tools
Strengths:
(+) The focus on combining indicators of social vulnerability with specific environmental hazards to allow decision makers to prioritise areas of focus with regards to climate adaptation measures.
(+) The tool is completely opensource, with the codes available in GitHub for anyone to utilise or adapt.
(+) The use of national census data which is widely collected and generally freely accessible to all users, allows for comparison of social vulnerability in different regions within a country.
Weaknesses:
(-) Some data may be lacking for some indicators through the national census, especially at a high enough resolution. that will allow for comparisons of vulnerability within city areas, and the assumption that knowledge of the general characteristics of an area will constantly yield accurate and precise information about specific individuals within those areas. However, these are unavoidable when using publicly accessible datasets, and are considered acceptable in an initial approach to assessing social vulnerability.
(-) The tool also requires some familiarity with the GitHub platform and basic coding skills.
The SVI-tool can be used effectively in combination with several other tools to better understand climate change impacts and risks. It is connected to other tools and frameworks through the REACHOUT Triple-A Toolkit. For instance, the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) data can be incorporated into various other tools in the Triple-A toolkit, including into the damage model layers of the Flood Adapt tool or the Thermal Heat Assessment Tool, as well as used in conjunction with the climate resilient development pathways approach, and with the Crowdsourcing Tool to inform adaptation planning decisions of local government.
When compared to the JRC Vulnerability Dashboard, the resolution of the SVI is much higher than NUTS 3 and SVI offers a greater selection of indicators. Particularly those linked to the different aspects of adaptive capacity, including social networks, tenure and mobility, as well as housing characteristics are included to provide a more robust dataset.
Input(s)
The SVI-tool uses inputs from national census datasets and Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) data, both of which are freely accessible and available to users, who can extract the information and include it in the SVI. To add additional indicators and create more detailed outputs, data from regional and local sources may be used. This data is generally held by local authorities and may not be freely available to all users.
Output(s)
The tool outputs maps of the area that are highlighting social vulnerability to a chosen environmental hazard, ranging from extremely high to very low vulnerability. This data is available as shapefiles for the highest resolution available from national census data, for example in Ireland this is the small census area (as shown below).
Replicability: Cost/effort for (new) usage
Users proficient in the coding language R will be able to update and edit the datasets to implement this tool in their chosen area, with the most current information available. We estimate that this should take no more than 2 days of work.
The code to amend this tool is completely open source and available on GitHub, and when completed the user guide will also be freely available.
Materials or other support available
A user guide is being developed (in English, Spanish and Italian) to allow regions to update the tool with additional data as it becomes available to them. Detailed guidance is currently available in English outlining the development of the tool on a dedicated Juypter Notebook Page while a recent publication in MethodsX (McCullagh et al., 2025) outlines the methodology for the development of the SVI tool.
The code to amend this tool is completely open source and available on GitHub.
Website and maintenance
This tool is accessible via GitHub
It will also be available on the Climate Ireland Website.
And it is also available as part of the Triple-A Toolkit providing complementary information on other useful tools that can complement this climate service.
Contact
Denise McCullagh
Denise [dot] mccullagh
ucc [dot] ie (Denise[dot]mccullagh[at]ucc[dot]ie)
Associated project(s)
This work was primarily supported by the REACHOUT project, which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program [grant number 101036599]. There was also additional support from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Research Programme 2021–2030, as a part of the TALX2 project [grant number 2023-CE-1227] and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program through the Directed project [grant number 101073978].