Assessing flood resilience in West Virginia communities using socioeconomic and physical vulnerability indicators: implications for sustainable planning

This article examines flood resilience in communities across West Virginia by combining socioeconomic vulnerability with physical flood exposure at the community level. It looks at both incorporated and unincorporated areas to show how poverty, housing conditions, limited resources, and governance differences interact with floodplain exposure, vulnerable housing, essential facilities, community assets, and inundated roads.

The study finds that the highest overall flood vulnerability is concentrated in southern West Virginia, where communities often face both social disadvantage and significant physical flood exposure. Places such as McDowell and Mingo emerge as especially vulnerable because limited adaptive capacity overlaps with residential flood exposure, mobile homes in flood-prone areas, exposed essential facilities, and flood-affected roads, underscoring the need for integrated planning that combines physical mitigation with social support and long-term climate adaptation.