Urban Flood Risk and Inequality

Urban flood risk is distributed unevenly, and low-income and racialized communities are often more vulnerable. We are studying the policy and governance strategies able to address this injustice and promote equity-centered climate adaptation.

Incorporating justice and equity into adaptation planning—though critically important—is a challenge: The guidelines, frameworks, and metrics needed for a justice-centered approach are not readily available to practitioners. Our research is helping fill that gap. With funding from the Graham Sustainability Institute, we have produced a report, policy briefs and set of online resources that introduce decision-makers to the considerations involved in developing a justice-oriented adaptation plan (see button for link). Using these tools, practitioners will be in a better position to develop adaptation strategies that account for the needs of the most vulnerable urban residents and reduce existing inequities.

We are also working with partners at Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments (GLISA) to evaluate the extent to which state governments in the Great Lakes and Intermountain West regions can and do create enabling policy environments for flood risk reduction and adaptation. We are pairing this understanding with an evaluation of local flood risk preparedness to identify key opportunities for intervention and to better understand state-local dynamics in flood risk governance.