Emplaced social vulnerability to technological disasters: Southeast Louisiana and the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill

We examine the relationship between emplaced social vulnerability and impacts on mental health following the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Through joint analysis of data from Community Oil Spill Survey and US Census Bureau products, a place-based index of social vulnerability is developed to examine how emplaced characteristics engender unique susceptibility to the disaster, with specific attention on the influence of natural resource employment and community sentiment. Results show negative mental health impacts to be more pronounced at baseline compared to later time points and that shifts in negative mental health were not uniform for localities with divergent levels of social vulnerability, where places identified with high levels of social vulnerability the effectiveness of attributes associated with resilience were muted, while the effect of vulnerability attributes was amplified. These findings contribute to the understanding of vulnerability as a multidimensional concept shaped by the social attributes that characterize people and places.