Physical and political boundaries as barriers to the continuity of social vulnerability

•We consider two indicators of social vulnerability across a large regional area.•Issues categorising census boundaries to geographic features are examined.•Significant geographic features act as barriers to the continuity of social vulnerability.•Urban road structures have no effect; there is no “wrong side of the street”.

The dynamics of social vulnerability are of key interest to many government agencies and departments. Identifying the geographic distribution of vulnerability within regions, and analysing how localised areas of social need change over time, is a key information requirement for decision-making, and the resultant allocation of resources. Typically, the delineation of areas for the determination of social vulnerability occurs using a combination of political and census boundaries. In many instances, the boundaries of these areas align to natural geographic features such as rivers or lakes. In other cases, a boundary is aligned to a man-made structure such as a road. The boundary may also be arbitrarily positioned based on some measure of distance and not align to any physical feature. In this research, we identify the various boundary types present in a political region. Using two measures of social vulnerability, we assess these boundaries as barriers to the continuity of social vulnerability. From our results, we identify motorways/highways and watercourses as potential barriers. We find no significant effects with lesser road structures suggesting there is no “wrong side of the street”. These results have implications for decision-makers and emphasise the need to recognise the “softness” of boundaries, and consider the relationships between areas, when allocating resources.