Revisions To Spielman 2020 Reproduction

In 2003, Cutter et. al published a social vulnerability index for the United States at the county level. In 2020, Spielman et al. successfully reproduced Cutter’s index and developed new methods to test the internal consistency and construct validity of the index by recalculating it at different spatial scales: nationally, by FEMA region, and for a sample state within each region. In 2023, Joe Holler et al. conducted a successful reproduction study of Spielman’s internal consistency analysis. Holler’s team also visualized the original social vulnerability index scores (SoVIs) on a national scale. They also tested an alternate method for calculating SoVI scores using the variance explained in the principal component analysis (PCA) as a weight for the component variables. While the differences observed between the two sets of scores is minor, further investigation into each method’s accuracy may be warranted.