BRIDGING THE EQUITY GAP IN FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT Hunter Merritt
Reprinted from IMPACT magazine from AWRA
Floods can affect every person and every community—but not always equally. Some communities—particularly poorer communities that lack access to much-needed resources— struggle harder than others to prepare for and recover from floods. Climate changes are exacerbating these inequalities; tides are rising along coasts, atmospheric storms and river floods are coming harder and faster than ever before, hitting the places that have not been armored against flood, and emergency response capabilities are feeling the strain. Across the industry, water resources professionals from a variety of sectors are becoming increasingly aware of disparities in the disaster risk cycle. Continued effort is needed, on the part of engineers and planners, to better understand the factors that contribute to the inequities facing the less resilient communities. These factors may include the agencies themselves, if they continue to depend upon antiquated policies, processes, and institutional systems that marginalize some individuals and communities. To that end, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ National Flood Risk Management Program hosted the first in a series of virtual engagements titled “Bridging the Equity Gap in Flood Risk Management” in August 2021. The inaugural webinar, titled “Environmental Justice, Equity, and Flood Risk Management,” featured panelists who offered valuable insights into how environmental and social justice intersect with flood risk. The panelists also offered perspectives on how everyone – individuals, communities, and agencies – must work together to overcome the equity gap in flood risk management.
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Environmental Justice and Flood Risk Management Policy Jerica Richardson, a senior policy advisor with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), kicked off the panel with a short history of federal policies centered on environmental justice and an introduction to emergent applications of the principles of environmental justice to contemporary challenges in flood risk management. To evaluate benefits from water resources projects, Richardson explained, USACE and other federal water management agencies apply the “Economic and Environmental Principles and Guidelines for Water and Related Land Resources Implementation Studies.” These principles and guidelines, first codified in 1983 and recently updated (and renamed) in 2013, assist and direct evaluation of projects from four distinct lenses, often called the “four accounts”: National Economic Development (NED), Regional Economic Development, Environmental Quality, and Other Social Effects. The fourth account includes consideration of social and environmental justice.
