Urban plans often ignore the uneven impacts of hazards on socially vulnerable populations. We evaluate the degree to which equity policies in local networks of plans support risk reduction for socially vulnerable populations, and examine the relationship between equity policies scores and the level of social vulnerability in six cities exposed to floods and projected sea level rise. We find high variability in equity policy support for risk reduction, and that equity policies in plans actually actively increase risk of loss in neighborhoods with high levels of social vulnerability, which in turn could disrupt further development.

Identification of traffic crash hot spots is of great importance for improving roadway safety and maintaining the transportation system’s sustainability. Traditionally, police crash reports (PCR) have been used as the primary source of crash data in safety studies. However, using PCR as the sole source of information has several drawbacks. For example, some crashes, which do not cause extensive property damage, are mostly underreported. Underreporting of crashes can significantly influence the effectiveness of data-driven safety analysis and prevent safety analysts from reaching statistically meaningful results. Crowdsourced traffic incident data such as Waze have great potential to complement traditional safety analysis by providing user-captured crash and traffic incident data. However, using these data sources also has some challenges. One of the major problems is data redundancy because many people may report the same event. In this paper, the authors explore the potential of using crowdsourced Waze incident reports (WIRs) to identify high-risk road segments. The researchers first propose a new methodology to eliminate redundant WIRs. Then, the researchers use WIRs and PCRs from an I-35 corridor in North Texas to conduct the safety analysis. Results demonstrated that WIRs and PCRs are spatially correlated; however, their temporal distributions are significantly different. WIRs have broader coverage, with 60.24 percent of road segments in the study site receiving more WIRs than PCRs. Moreover, by combining WIRs with PCRs, more high-risk road segments can be identified (14 miles) than the results generated from PCRs (8 miles).

Climate change issues are gradually gaining attention in the planning field, especially in urban regions due to high vulnerability caused by their dense population and complex networks. Communities depend on local policy tools to identify threats, determine goals, and implement strategies. Consequently, many cities around the world have developed climate adaptation plans to reduce climate impacts in the past decades. This study applied a plan evaluation framework to analyze and compare the plan quality of the latest climate adaptation plan in Taipei and Boston. The study examines key elements of adaptation plans to reveal strengths and weaknesses, and to compare and learn between adaptation plans internationally. Findings suggest that the framework provides comparable measures and analysis across international settings. We find that Taipei has a weak fact base and fails to address uncertainty, which importance in adaptation plans has been acknowledged only recently. We also identified shortfalls in public participation and implementation items in both cities. The study concludes by discussing results and giving recommendations to inform more effective approaches as practitioners develop or reevaluate climate adaptation plans.

A community’s resilience is strongly influenced by the growth management guidance provided by its network of plans. Wetland loss has been shown to amplify flood damage. This study explores the relationship between plan integration and wetland alteration, comparing the findings from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and League City, Texas. Combining spatial analytics, a Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard™ evaluation, and correlational statistics, we find that wetland loss is significantly associated with plan integration and development patterns and is less acute in League City than Fort Lauderdale. Integrating wetland protection policies throughout a network of plans helps build resilience to flood hazards.