Implicit Sustainable Development Theories Obscure Disproportionate Impacts from Climate-related Extreme Events: Example from Hurricane Michael and Housing Losses on Florida’s Forgotten Coast

Abstract

A central challenge for sustainable development (SD) is how societies are to avoid, minimize or address impacts from anthropogenic climate change. However, competing perspective on “what should be sustained” lead to widely different understandings of what mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage entail and how best to approach them. We provide a novel conceptual and empirical comparison of two contrasting SD-based theoretical approaches to the study of impacts from climate-related extreme events: Capital Theory and Human Development. We use our analysis of immediate residential property value and housing capacity impacts caused by Hurricane Michael in Gulf County, Florida, to demonstrate how the theory used to assess and interpret impacts greatly affects the identification of whom and where is considered to be objectively “most impacted”. From our comparative analysis and discussion, we conclude that, while currently underutilized, Human Development is the more advanced approach to SD oriented climate-impact research and policy when compared to Capital Theory.