Social Dimensions of Urban Flood Experience, Exposure, and Concern

Abstract

With growing urban populations and climate change, urban flooding is an important global issue, even in dryland regions. Flood risk assessments are usually used to identify vulnerable locations and populations, flooding experience patterns, or levels of concern about flooding, but rarely are all of these approaches combined. Furthermore, the social dynamics of flood concerns, exposure, and experience are underexplored. We combined geographic and survey data on household‐level measures of flood experience, concern, and exposure in Utah's urbanizing Wasatch Front. We asked: (1) Are socially vulnerable groups more likely to be exposed to flood risk? (2) How common are flooding experiences among urban residents, and how are these experiences related to sociodemographic characteristics and exposure? and (3) How concerned are urban residents about flooding, and does concern vary by exposure, flood experience, and sociodemographic characteristics? Although floodplain residents were more likely to be White and have higher incomes, respondents who were of a racial/ethnic minority, were older, had less education, and were living in floodplains were more likely to report flood experiences and concern about flooding. Flood risk management approaches need to address social as well as physical sources of vulnerability to floods and recognize social sources of variation in flood experiences and concern.

Measuring social equity in flood recovery funding

“…Vaulted into the US national consciousness by the disparate population impacts of Hurricane Katrina (Gabe, Falk, & McCarty, 2005), there has been growing recognition that understanding and managing flood disasters requires more than simply characterising hydrological processes and built environment damage. Social inequities are also now understood to be significant drivers of flood exposure, adverse impacts, and recovery trajectories (Burton & Cutter, 2008;Hale, Flint, Jackson-Smith, & Endter-Wada, 2018;Koks, Jongman, Husby, & Botzen, 2015). These drivers are conceptually and empirically investigated in social vulnerability research, which examines how systemic social, economic, institutional, and political processes lead some population groups to face pervasive barriers accessing post-disaster resources.…”

Self‐stated recovery from flooding: Empirical results from a survey in Central Vietnam

“…However, to truly confirm the degree of intercultural transferability, wider testing across different socio‐normative contexts is required. This can also include different groups within society, as it is known that different social groups experience flood impacts differently (Bubeck & Thieken, 2018; Cutter, 2017; Hale, Flint, Jackson‐Smith, & Endter‐Wada, 2018; Hudson, Thieken, et al, 2019, Hudson, Botzen, et al, 2019, Hudson, Pham, et al, 2019). Therefore, while the flood recovery question used here is suitable for overall recovery, there can be additional nuances for specific social groups.…”

“…Therefore, while the flood recovery question used here is suitable for overall recovery, there can be additional nuances for specific social groups. This is because it has shown how social inequalities can result in, for example, socially vulnerable being more heavily impacted by flooding (Hale et al, 2018). This in turn requires more nuanced risk management policies.…”

Flood risk behaviors of United States riverine metropolitan areas are driven by local hydrology and shaped by race

“…The approaches to flood risk exhibited in racially diverse cities may reflect lower economic capacity among residents to participate in NFIP (45,46) or barriers to navigating bureaucracies (35). The cluster of "risk-enduring" metropolitan areas may be cities in which residents are trapped in cycles of flooding and loss, unable to migrate from floodplains, similar to other populations (17,34,47), in contrast with the idea of a green society that copes with flooding through planned migration and development (13). The second cluster of risk-averse metropolitan areas with a greater proportion of White residents (Fig.…”