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Title: Housing amenity and affordability shape floodplain development
Flood damage has severe and long-term repercussions for households and communities, and continued housing development in floodplains escalates damages over time. Policies and interventions to reduce damage depend on assumptions about housing stock and residents, but assessments of flood exposure to date largely focus on community-scale characteristics at a single point in time, masking potential within-community differences and their evolution through time. We measure residential development in the floodplain nationwide over time to characterize the type and value of U.S. floodplain housing stock and to assess how new development contributes to flood exposure. Over 4M U.S. residences built from 1700 to 2019 (4.8% of all residences built during that time) are located within current regulatory floodplains. These residences are concentrated at the affordable and expensive extremes of the housing value spectrum, reflecting deep differences in the social vulnerability of floodplain residents. Floodplain housing stock often differs substantially from the local market, with coastal floodplains containing relatively expensive housing and inland floodplains containing relatively affordable housing. New housing development has not occurred equally across these contexts. In the past two decades, more floodplain development has occurred in communities with relatively expensive floodplain housing, and mobile home construction in floodplains has slowed. The bifurcated patterns in floodplain housing, across values and geographies, demonstrate the importance of considering the specific population at risk and how it may differ from the broader community when tailoring flood risk management approaches.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2034239 2034308 2033929
PAR ID:
10516073
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Elsevier
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Land Use Policy
Volume:
144
Issue:
C
ISSN:
0264-8377
Page Range / eLocation ID:
107216
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
flooding floodplain development natural hazards housing inequity wealth disparity
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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