Shifting landscapes of risk: Quantifying pluvial flood vulnerability beyond the regulated floodplain.

Floods are recognized as the costliest type of natural hazard both worldwide and in the United States, with projected increases in frequency and magnitude in the absence of effective adaptation strategies. In the fall of 2018, Hurricane Florence made landfall in southeastern North Carolina, USA, bringing record rainfall and resulting in widespread inundation that impacted many areas outside of the federally designated Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA). Much of this flooding was from inland pluvial inundation, which is an understudied component of coastal risk and vulnerability assessments primarily due to the scarcity of infrastructure data and historically lower flooding recurrence rates.

Residential flood vulnerability along the developed North Carolina, USA coast: High resolution social and physical data for decision support.

This article presents an ArcGIS geodatabase of socio-demographic and physical characteristics derived from recent high resolution data sources to construct measures of population vulnerability to inundation in the 28 counties of coastal North Carolina, U.S.A.