Climate Vulnerability Index
What is the Climate Vulnerability Index?
In 2023, WSCC produced the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) in partnership with the University of Brighton. The CVI represents a unique geospatial mapping tool among UK local authorities that considers the relationships between social and environmental vulnerabilities.
The tool analyses social, economic and environmental data to identify which areas of the county are more vulnerable to climate change and why.
The CVI tool considers what population characteristics may influence a community’s overall social susceptibility and ability to adapt and react in emergency situations. It further identifies key environmental data on future climate conditions, air quality, flood risk, land cover and more.
The Climate Vulnerability Index has been developed through a partnership between West Sussex County Council and the University of Brighton. It uses a unique indexing methodology to determine relative levels of climate vulnerability across the county.
We request that any extraction and use of the data derived from this indexing methodology be attributed to West Sussex County Council.
This map is a new initiative and we welcome your feedback by emailing CVI@westsussex.gov.uk.
The CVI includes 40 individual data layers for each Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) in West Sussex. Together, each LSOA in the county is ranked relative to the others across all 40 layers, with the results indexed to provide a Climate Vulnerability score. This score suggests which communities may be more vulnerable (for example, those with a score closer to 1) to climate change based on social vulnerability, ability to adapt and respond and environmental threat levels.
Beyond overall climate vulnerability, the CVI also contains each of the individual layers that comprise the index score. This includes information on population characteristics and environmental hazards.
Having access to this wealth of data from multiple sources in an easily accessible and visual format improves our ability to support our communities.