Project

What is an index?
An exploration of indices that rank the vulnerability and resilience of counties across the United States.

Indices rank places. They are important because they can be used to guide the distribution of resources from the top down under different circumstances. How an area compares to others when considering a particular set of factors could effect how its needs are prioritized and therefore met. Indices are also made to compare places in terms of livability or growth, these comparisons determine which cities are more attractive to potential residents.

Indices are made and published by federal, state, and local government agencies, universities, research nonprofits, as well as for profit companies.

This project compares data for 8 national indices, as well as the census measures that go into 15 additional indices to provide an overview of how indices are made, by whom, and for what purpose.

Explore this project here.

Project Team

Name	Project Role
Jia Zhang	Project Lead
Contact Jia Zhang Jia Zhang is a Mellon Associate Research Scholar at Columbia University's Center for Spatial Research. She experiments with communicating quantitative and qualitative data visually. Her research examines and utilizes technical processes and abstract visual forms found in data representation. At the CSR, Jia works on visualizations of public urban datasets and the U.S. Census.
Adeline Chum	Graduate Research Assistant
Contact Adeline Chum Adeline Chum is Assistant Director of the Center for Spatial Research (CSR), where she leads multiple ongoing collaborative research projects ranging from mapping migration across African cities, the underfunding of poultry farms across the US, and the effects of liens and mortgages in the bail industry. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at GSAPP in the MArch program. Prior to joining CSR, She has worked in architecture firms in Toronto, New York, and London.