Exploring Socio-Demographic Inequalities in Post-Disaster Community Well-Being: Case Study of Hurricane Harvey

Natural hazards can disrupt various aspects of the community members' lives such as satisfaction with the solid waste management and debris removal system. These impacts can be disproportionate across communities with different socio-demographic backgrounds. This study is aimed at identifying such inequalities. To that end, a case study of the Houston area in Texas under post-Harvey situation is conducted. Satisfaction with waste and debris management services is taken as a sample metric for post-disaster well-being of community members. To quantify this metric, the 311 phone call data, which pertains to municipal service requests, is used. The dataset comprises the topic, location, and the date of municipal service requests. The number of active service requests related to waste management is taken as the metric for the related community well-being domain. Socio-demographic disparities in post-disaster community well-being of the affected zip codes are then explored. The results showed that zip codes with lower income level, more single-parent families, and multi-unit houses were affected the most by Harvey. The study outcomes can inform policymakers in identifying the zip codes that sustained disparate impacts caused by Hurricane Harvey. The proposed step-by-step method can be expanded to identify disparities with respect to other well-being domains, and for other locations.