Code linking SHELDUS with ACS data 

Link to code

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Authors/Creators/ Team Members:  Jenna Tipaldo, Deborah Balk, Dylan Connor, Helen Wilson Burns, Lori Hunter, Melanie Gall 

Specific purpose of code: This code links the American Community Survey (ACS) microdata with the Spatial Hazards Events and Losses Database for the United States (SHELDUS). 

General Application: This is an example of linking county-level data on disaster events with PUMA-level micro-data (that is, data on individuals or households) on sociodemographic characteristics. The code could be used with other PUMA-level survey data, or with other county-level environmental data. 

How does or could this code allow researchers to assess research questions related  to aging or life course?: This code could be used with the ACS data to assess any single years of age, so any combination of age group or subsets by age is possible. 

Data sets used: 

• Population, socioeconomic, or health data: American Community Survey (ACS) from the U.S. Census Bureau
• Climate, weather, disaster or environment data: Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database for the United States (SHELDUS)

Are all the data publicly available or are some restricted-access? ACS is publicly available and free to download. SHELDUS is publicly available with data for South Carolina free to download (access to entire SHELDUS dataset requires an agreement with SHELDUS, potentially with compensation).  

Links to data: SHELDUS, ACS 

Coding Language:  R 

Tools and Packages used:  tidyverse, tigris, sf, gganimate, RColorBrewer 

Output(s): Dataset, Maps (static and animated), Graphs 

Spatial extent: South Carolina (Example), United States (application) 

Temporal extent: 2012-2022 

Published papers that use this code: Balk, D., Connor, D., Gall, M., Hunter, L., Tipaldo, J.F., Wilson Burns, H. *authors listed alphabetically. (2025, April) The Changing Demography of Disaster Impact in the US, 2012-2022, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America Meeting, April 2025, Washington, DC

https://submissions.mirasmart.com/Verify/PAA2025/Submission/Temp/rad2p2wgqwq.pdf