Discussion Questions - A Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation

Discussion Questions A Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation Uniting Design, Economics, and Policy Edited by Carolyn Kousky, Billy Fleming, and Alan M. Berger

Part I: Designing for Equitable Resilience Chapter 1: A Comprehensive Framework for Coastal Flood-Risk Reduction: Charting a Course Toward Resiliency \ Samuel Brody, Kayode Atoba, Wesley Highfield, Antonia Sebastian, Russell Blessing, William Mobley, and Laura Stearns 1. There is no one-size-fits-all mitigation technique, but a synergy of multiple strategies working together to reduce flood risk. Select an area of your choice and discuss the most effective combination of mitigation strategies that work best. What challenges will decision-makers face in implementing these strategies?

2. Resistance techniques such as dikes, levees, and flood barriers often require large amounts of investment. How can decision-makers gain community support for implementing these projects?

3. Avoidance techniques such as density bonuses, buffers, and TDRs can be difficult to implement for local planners depending on the history and approach to land use planning in their community. Which management approach is best in dealing with these kinds of strategies: top-down or bottom-up?

4. The built and natural environment is dynamic. Which mitigation strategies in this flood risk reduction framework provide the best synergistic approach for addressing the dynamic nature of built environment systems? Coastal communities also continue to

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deal with rising sea levels, subsidence, and climate change in general: which mitigation techniques can best address these issues?

Why is the scale and scope of coastal projects important in preventing adverse impacts on vulnerable communities unable to afford expensive coastal infrastructure?

Some mitigation techniques can restore large areas of land to less risky zones. How can local decision-makers ensure that new flood infrastructure does not create a perverse incentive or false sense of security in the community, prompting development in vulnerable locations? What are the dangers of allowing development in former flood zones in the wake of a new coastal defense system?

Flood risk communication is essential in reducing fatalities due to extreme events.

Which new technologies are available for communicating flood risk to the community?

What challenges do officials face in ensuring residents have access to the most comprehensive information on flood risk?

Avoidance techniques such as acquisition and relocation heavily depend on homeowners to volunteer and leave flood-prone locations. However, many homeowners are emotionally attached to their properties and prefer to remain in their homes even under dire circumstances. What can planners and managers do to persuade homeowners to participate in relocation programs?

Chapter 2: Designing for Resilience in Rich Coastal Cities (and Beyond) \ Matthijs Bouw 1. What can we learn from other countries about climate adaptation?

2. How does climate change adaptation relate to other urban challenges?

3. How do projects reflect what is considered 'valuable' in our societies?

Part II: Adapting Public Policy and Finance Chapter 6: Public Funding of Coastal Adaptation: A Review of US Public Sources— and the Case for More \ Carlos Martín 1. What should the proportional role of federal public funding play in local coastal adaptation infrastructure in relation to states, counties, cities, and special districts? What factors should define those proportions?

2. Direct public funding of infrastructure requires public funds, usually collected through taxes, fees, or debt. Frame the evolution of infrastructure funding in relation to changing governmental revenue, appropriations, and debt policy.

3. What are the limitations of the tools that define financial investments-such as benefitcost analysis-in relation to the range of environmental, social, economic, and fiduciary impacts from coastal infrastructure?

4. What other infrastructure funding is needed to address the range of climate change's effects beyond coastal adaptation? Should the funding needed to address other effects be different, and how?

Chapter 7: Insurance and Coastal Adaptation \ Carolyn Kousky 1.

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What role does insurance play in recovery from disasters?

Why is insuring disasters difficult?

What are the various property insurance programs operating in coastal communities?

How is climate change stressing disaster insurance markets?

What policy changes would help ensure equitable recovery?

Chapter 8: Environmental Impact Bonds: An Innovation in Financing Climate Adaptation \ Shannon Cunniff, Benjamin Cohen, and Carolyn duPont 1. What are some of the pros and cons of this type of outcomes-based investment structure in mobilizing investment toward resilience?

2. How can stakeholders be properly incentivized to want to measure outcomes and performance of these investments? Who might be resistant to that measurement?

3. What other types of resilience projects and investments could benefit from leveraging a similar outcomes-based structure?

4. Think of a climate resilience oriented project and identify co-benefits and what could be monetized, and the potential beneficiaries that might desire a financial stake in making the project happen?

Chapter 9: Adapting Coastal Drinking Water to Rising Seas \ Allison Lassiter 1. What water management strategies do you think will be best for Philadelphia to adapt to higher levels of salinity?

2. How should Philadelphia prepare for an extreme event (e.g., a hurricane) that could temporarily create high salinity conditions upriver?

3. Given the uncertainty of the timeline for when Philadelphia's drinking water will become too saline, what actions, if any, should the local water agency take now? What actions should DRBC take now?

4. How could you phase management responses over time? What conditions would trigger the next phase?

5. Are there lessons from Philadelphia and the DRBC for other coastal communities?

Chapter 10: Take Out the Trash When You Leave: Cleaning Up Properties Abandoned to Rising Seas \ Thomas Ruppert 1. What are some of the deleterious impacts of not adequately cleaning up residential properties that are abandoned? Have we seen such impacts before in the United States?

2. When considering who should pay for cleaning up abandoned residential properties, what are some things that should be considered?

3. Under current law, if a property violates local codes about garbage, dumping, or other codes, the typical response is for the local government to eventually remediate the code violation and use statutory procedures to then assess that cost to the property. Why will this probably not be a sufficient solution for cleaning up abandoned residential properties?

4. What are some of the challenges in designing a local program to proactively develop funding streams for future cleanup of residential properties that have not yet been abandoned?