DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15034911
title: SEPHER 2.0

description: The purpose of the SEPHER data set is to allow for testing, assessing and generating new analysis and metrics that can address inequalities and climate injustice. The data set was created by Tedesco, M., C. Hultquist, S. E. Char, C. Constantinides, T. Galjanic, and A. D. Sinha.SEPHER draws upon four major source datasets: CDC Social Vulnerability Index, FEMA National Risk Index, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, and Evictions datasets. The data from these source datasets have been merged, cleaned, and standardized and all of the variables documented in the data dictionary.

CDC Social Vulnerability Index

CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) dataset is a dataset prepared for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the purpose of assessing the degree of social vulnerability of American communities to natural hazards and anthropogenic events. It contains data on 15 social factors taken or derived from Census reports as well as rankings of each tract based on these individual factors, groups of factors corresponding to four related themes (Socioeconomic, Household Composition & Disability, Minority Status & Language, and Housing Type & Transportation) and overall. The data is available for the years 2000, 2010, 2014, 2016, and 2018. 

FEMA National Risk Index

The National Risk Index (NRI) dataset compiled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) consists of historic natural disaster data from across the United States at a tract-level. The dataset includes information about 18 natural disasters including earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, volcanic activity and many others. Each disaster is detailed out in terms of its frequency, historic impact, potential exposure, expected annual loss and associated risk. The dataset also includes some summary variables for each tract including the total expected loss in terms of building loss, human loss and agricultural loss, the population of the tract, and the area covered by the tract. It finally includes a few more features to characterize the population such as social vulnerability rating and community resilience.

 

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) dataset contains loan-level data for home mortgages including information on applications, denials, approvals, and institution purchases. It is managed and expanded annually by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau based on the data collected from financial institutions. The dataset is used by public officials to make decisions and policies, uncover lending patterns and discrimination among mortgage applicants, and investigate if lenders are serving the housing needs of the communities. It covers the period from 2007 to 2017.

 

Evictions

The Evictions dataset is compiled and managed by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University and consists of court records related to eviction cases in the United States between 2000 and 2016. Its purpose is to estimate the prevalence of court-ordered evictions and compare eviction rates among states, counties, cities, and neighborhoods. Besides information on eviction filings and judgments, the dataset includes socioeconomic and real estate data for each tract including race/ethnic origin, household income, poverty rate, property value, median gross rent, rent burden, and others.