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This study systematically reviews the diverse body of research on community flood risk management in the USA to identify knowledge gaps and develop innovative and practical lessons to aid flood management decision-makers in their efforts to reduce flood losses. The authors discovered and reviewed 60 studies that met the selection criteria (e.g., study is written in English, is empirical, focuses on flood risk management at the community level in the USA, etc.). Upon reviewing the major findings from each study, the authors identified seven practical lessons that, if implemented, could not only help flood management decision-makers better understand communities’ flood risks, but could also reduce the impacts of flood disasters and improve communities’ resilience to future flood disasters. These seven lessons include: (1) recognizing that acquiring open space and conserving wetlands are some of the most effective approaches to reducing flood losses; (2) recognizing that, depending on a community’s flood risks, different development patterns are more effective at reducing flood losses; (3) considering the costs and benefits of participating in FEMA’s Community Rating System program; (4) engaging community members in the flood planning and recovery processes; (5) considering socially vulnerable populations in flood risk management programs; (6) relying on a variety of floodplain management tools to delineate flood risk; and (7) ensuring that flood mitigation plans are fully implemented and continually revised.
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Breaking Boundaries in Resilience Planning
We describe a framework for deploying agent-based models as a tool for decision-making during resilience planning, with an emphasis on flood mitigation. Prior work has demonstrated that agent-based models can be effective tools for modelling evolving community flood resilience and risk perception when they incorporate elements of individual decision-making. We argue for extending this methodology and incorporating it into regional infrastructure and resilience planning in order to 1) create more distributed and robust green infrastructure implementations and performance management systems; 2) provide a critique and alternatives to existing planning and delivery processes based on public sector jurisdictional boundaries; and, 3) validate and improve the modelling process by connecting it directly to stakeholder decision-making processes. This final point will effectively merge these systems-centric modelling approaches with human-centred community organising that employs various co-design methods. In regard to the ABMs, co-design methods can be a useful source of real-world data about individual decision-making that can inform and validate iterations of the models. For stakeholders, they can be a valuable source of information and education about flood risk and climate-related impacts that might not be available through other channels. And finally, hands-on workshops coupled with potential small implementation grants can be effective ways of providing skills and incentives to stakeholders who may wish to undertake projects on their own property, reshaping the way green infrastructure planning and implementation can be accomplished.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2115295
- PAR ID:
- 10489480
- Publisher / Repository:
- Systemic Design Association
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium proceedings
- ISSN:
- 2371-8404
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Brighton UK
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
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