Progress 11/30/16 to 09/30/18
Outputs
Target Audience:Final target communities for this research included the following cities and towns along the mainstem Susquehanna River: Village of Owego, NY; Village of Nichols, NY; City of Binghamton, NY; Village of Johnson City, NY; Village of Sidney, NY. Target audience includes anyone at the federal, state, regional, or community level who deals with flood risk management, as well as the residents in these communities who live in a flood risk area. We focused on the most vulnerable populations in these areas, defined by a range of social, economic, and environmental factors. Note that findings from this study may be relevant to any floodplain population in the United States, but are especially relevant to inland, rural communities. Changes/Problems:We began this project with the intent to focus on FEMA buyouts of flood-prone properties in 3 study communities. We spent the first several months developing a mapping protocol to understand and represent flood risk and uncertainty. We also worked to develop a protocol for measuring and representing vulnerability of populations across each municipality, as a way to understand if/how residing in the floodplain influenced overall vulnerability, and also to compare across municipalities. We also fine-tuned our interview guides during this project initiation phase. After conducting several interviews and trying to schedule others, we realized that 1- many people involved in past buyouts had retired or lost their position due to political changes, or they couldn't remember the details of the buyout process; 2- some stakeholders who were directly involved in buyouts were reluctant to go on the record discussing the process; 3- most municipal stakeholders were only willing to share the names of a very limited number of residents involved in the buyout process (our primary target group) due to privacy issues. Concerned about a very limited (and possibly biased) survey sample, we knew we had to adjust our research question. While we still include questions concerning the buyouts in our interviews (if relevant), we 1- changed our target interviewees to include stakeholders involved in flood risk management at the federal, state, regional, and local municipality level; and 2- changed our primary research question to "how do municipalities understand and manage flood risk?" Because of these changes, we expanded our study from three communities to five as a way to include more varied approaches to flood risk management. These changes in project scope altered our budget requirements. Initially, we thought we would need $4000 to travel often to meet with community members for surveys and interviews, but did most of our interviews with the alternate group over the phone. The more targeted and smaller group of interviewees required far less funding for transcription as well. This resulted in a budget surplus of approximately $10,000. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Although we didn't initially propose specific opportunities for training, we have already presented findings at three workshops/conferences for professional development, including the NYS Floodplain Managers annual meeting, the Adapting Buildings to Climate Change workshop/symposium sponsored by NYSERDA and SUNY at Buffalo, and the Community Development Institute "Flood Risk and Resiliency" sponsored by the Community and Rural Development Institute at Cornell University. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?So far we have shared initial documents and research findings with several audiences, including: 1- Cornell University undergraduate and graduate students and faculty (mostly in Landscape Architecture, Environmental Science and Sustainability, and City and Regional Planning) via a public exhibition held in Kennedy Hall on Cornell campus. We used this exhibition to share and test maps and drawings we developed to more clearly represent floodplain, flood risk, and uncertainty. 2- New York State Floodplain Managers during association's annual meeting (presentation). Many of our study communities had representatives present. 3- Faculty in Landscape Architecture from around the United States at the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture annual conference (presentation). 4- New York State planners, engineers, designers, and municipal leaders during the Adapting Buildings to Climate Change symposium (presentation and workshop participation). 5- Area planners, engineers, designers, municipal leaders, faculty, and researchers during Cornell's Community and Rural Development Institute's annual community development institute titled "Flood Risk and Community Resiliency" (panel and presentation). Many of our study communities had representatives present. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the period of 2011-2015, 15 million United States residents lived in the 0.1 annual chance flood zone (aka. the100-year floodplain). The state of New York ranks fourth in the nation for the number of occupied housing units in flood risk areas, with 426,338 units located in the combined risk flood zone. Climate change is already altering precipitation regimes across the Northeastern U.S., and will continue to bring larger storms and increased flooding to our study area, the Upper Susquehanna sub-basin. We began this project focused on the buyout of floodplain housing using Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding post-declared disaster, but later expanded our scope to ask how do communities understand and manage flood risk? The five study communities (Village of Owego, Village of Nichols, City of Binghamton, Village of Sidney, and Village of Johnson City) were selected for their different approaches to flood risk and varying vulnerability to flood. Objective #1: To study and improve the strategy of relocation [and flood risk management] of residents and acquisition of properties in flood-prone areas 1) While our project in general expanded from relocation of residents (buyouts) to include a wider study of flood risk management, we still tracked where buyouts had occurred in our mapping protocol, and included questions about the buyout processes, when applicable, in interviews with those involved in the process. One of the major reasons we changed the focus of our study midway was that most buyouts occurred after the 2006 and 2011 floods and several key personnel involved in the process had retired, or no longer worked for the municipality, or couldn't recall details very well due to the time that had elapsed. A concerning lack of institutional memory due to changes in personnel is one of our key findings. 2) As mentioned above, we included any buyout information in our mapping and interviews. 3) With the exception of Sidney, our study communities were able to utilize the buyout/relocation process with limited success. The Village of Owego had 34 buyouts in 2012. Johnson City has had 5 total, with 3 still in progress. The City of Binghamton has conducted 20 buyouts, and is currently working on another application. 4) Key outcomes or other accomplishments: 1- description of the conditions leading to buyouts (timelines) 2- place-based mapping studies Objective #2 and #4: To develop an evaluative and diagnostic framework for assessing the preceding conditions, strategy, process and outcomes for acquisition of housing and relocation of residents from disturbance-prone areas based on an extensive literature review; To study, document, and assess the way municipalities understand and manage flood risk, including the roles and participation of FEMA officials and policy, state government agencies, regional agencies and actors. 1) We have conducted lengthy interviews with stakeholders at several federal level agencies, including: The Army Corp of Engineers, FEMA Risk Assessment and Mapping Division, FEMA Planning Division. At the state level we've interviewed folks at the Governor's Office of Storm Recovery, New York Rising. At the regional level we've interviewed actors at the Upper Susquehanna Watershed Coalition, a consultant familiar with hazard mitigation planning, the NYS Floodplain Managers Association, and The Nature Conservancy (TNC). We've interviewed stakeholders in 3 counties, including Tioga County Economic Development and Planning, Tioga County Soil and Water Conservation District, Broome County Economic Development and Planning, Broome County Soil and Water Conservation District, and Delaware County Economic Development and Planning. At the municipal level, we've interviewed many of those charged with managing local flood risk and buyouts, including mayors and former mayors, code enforcement officers, directors of planning and economic development, village clerks, and directors of public services. 2) We interviewed individuals from agencies above. 3) Due to Amelia Greiner Safi's leave this semester, the continued analysis using our codebook terms was put on hold for a few months, but will begin again in winter 2019. Key themes so far include lack of transparency in communication; uncertainty involved in mapping flood risk; the question of who takes responsibility for risk; challenges specific to small, inland, and rural communities such as strong neighbor relationships, family attachment to homes, limited institutional capacity, and difficult in meeting satisfactory cost-benefit ratios for buyouts or flood control infrastructure; and complexity of the buyout process and the long duration. Objective #3: To develop and provide strategies for improving the process of relocation from flood-prone areas by ensuring that stakeholders are engaged in the process and have the capacity to make informed decisions 1) We developed a mapping protocol to test different ways to represent and communicate flood risk and to identify most vulnerable populations. Our hope is that these interactive maps can be used by residents to adequately understand risk and the uncertainty involved. 2) FEMA new and previous flood zone designated areas, fluvial (riverine) soils to locate historic floodplain areas, extent of recent and historic floods, buyout properties, mortgage status, value of household, household income, median monthly owner cost by percentage of household income, year structure was built, year householder moved into residence, limited English speaking households, percentage renter population, race of householder, household size, householders greater than 55 years of age, and female-headed households. 3) In study community Binghamton, NY, municipal officials are refusing to adopt new FIRM's because they expand the 0.1 annual chance flood zone dramatically. Studies have shown that people often doubt computer modeled data, such as the data used to generate FEMA's risk maps. Our maps build on this modeled data, but also include the material (fluvial soil) and the extent of impact from historic flood events. 4) The research team held an exhibition to test the legibility of flood risk and vulnerability maps. We also worked on creating an interactive, web-based version of the maps to be made available to a wider public audience in the near future. 15 million United States residents lived in housing prone to flooding in 2015. Climate change models project increases in precipitation for many parts of the country in the form of larger and more intense storm events. Flood risk is something every state has in common, although to varying degrees. The research we conducted with funding supplied through this grant increases our understanding of the challenges faced by small, rural, and inland communities in mitigating previous disasters and preparing for those to come. Coastal communities often make headlines, with large populations affected by hurricanes and facing the constant threat of sea level rise. Smaller, rural, and inland communities throughout the U.S. have different development trajectories, stagnant economies, and lower rates of population growth. In addition, many inland communities in the Northeast are experiencing increasingly hard to predict storms in the form of highly intense cloudbursts affecting smaller areas or tropical storms that stall out over inland areas and dump large amounts of rain over days. While coastal communities with higher populations are likely to meet cost-benefit requirements to construct new flood protection infrastructure, small, rural communities often struggle to do so. These communities must instead adapt to changing climate, and need strategies to protect residents by understanding their risk and vulnerability, removing barriers to taking action for mitigation, and collaborating to build a sustained culture of adaptation.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Vanucchi, J., Saumitra Sinha, Daisy Hoyt, and Isabella Welch. ⿿Relocation as a Strategy for Reducing Vulnerability in the Upper Susquehanna River Basin. Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), Annual conference in Blacksburg, VA, Mar 23, 2018.
Vanucchi, J. ⿿Strategies to Improve the Success of Relocation from Flood Risk Zones in the Susquehanna Watershed. NYS Floodplain Managers Association annual meeting in Rochester, NY, April 2018. [Book chapter submitted Nov 30, 2018]
Vanucchi, J. ⿿Community Floodplains along the Susquehanna River: Disturbance and Uncertainty as drivers for design. Adapting Buildings to Climate Change Symposium (sponsored by SUNY at Buffalo and NYSERDA) Albany, NY, October 1-2, 2018.
|
Progress 11/30/16 to 09/30/17
Outputs
Target Audience:Our research so far has involved the communities of Johnson City, Endwell, Endicott, Binghamton and Vestal. Within these communities, we are specifically working with those people who own homes in the flood risk areas, with a particular focus on socially vulnerable populations living in these environmental risk zones. Changes/Problems:We had some shifts in our budget, mostly due to the interviews. These changes include shifting money from this year into next because most of our interviews will happen at the end of this year, and so that we can make use of transcription services because transcribing the interviews is time consuming and we feel our research assistants time would be better spent on more technical aspects such as mapping and guidebook production. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This research may lead to opportunities for workshops with local officials on relocation planning and the buyout process. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Not yet. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to continue our interviews, as these have been very fruitful in terms of providing useful information and insights regarding the buyout process. The mapping and timelines for the case studies are nearly complete. As we transcribe interviews, we will use qualitative research methods to extract key findings. We are currently assembling components of a guidebook for communities that contains case study stories. We plan to share this book with our study communities and also to make it available to others. Our team has submitted an abstract to present our work at the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture annual conference, and we will use this to structure a paper for publication. In addition, we have submitted a proposal to speak at the 2018 Hazard Mitigation Workshop hosted by FEMA.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The goal of our project is to study and improve the process of relocation of people living in flood risk areas, to improve health andsafety now and to allow communities to adapt to the heavier rainfall events predicted for NYS in the coming decades. To do this, we are conducting place-based studies in several communities in the Susquehanna watershed. These communities all experienced FEMA buyouts of repeat-damage properties after major floods in 2006 and 2011. We approached the project with the basic idea that the strategy of relocation seemed sensible as a way to avoid: loss of life during floods, the repeated use of taxpayer money to repair flood-damaged homes, and the suppression of flood zone homeowner's asset-building potential that comes with lower property values in flood zones. However, we knew from previous research that the buyout process as conducted by FEMA was often fraught with issues and challenges for all those involved and therefore felt strongly that the process could be improved, especially given climate projections that suggest flooding will only increase. We devised a research plan to reconstruct and then assess the process of FEMA buyouts as they unfolded in several case communities. So far our methodologies include description of the place (mapping) with a focus on flood zone identification as well as acharacterization of the people who live in the flood risk zone; description of the process, including policies at the federal, state and local levels to regulate floodplains, storm and flood events, and eventually buyouts and aftermath; interviews with local stakeholders including municipal officials and residents. Our objectives as stated in the proposal, and our progress for each objective, are as follows: 1- To study and improve the strategy of relocation of residents and acquisition properties in flood-prone areas: This is an overarching objective that will be addressed in our final report. 2- To develop an evaluative and diagnostic framework for assessing the preceding conditions, strategy, process and outcomes for acquisition of housing and relocation of residents from disturbance-prone areas based on an extensive literature review: Our literature review reveals several strategies for improving the process of relocation of residents from environmental risk zones. We use the literature review to begin to assess how the process has unfolded in Broome County communities, but also reflect on local stakeholder stories. Findings so far point to several issues with how the buyout process has worked, including personnel changes that lead to confusion in communication, lack of transparency and breaks in the flow of information among stakeholders including lost applications and the lack of digital files, inconsistent messaging at the state and federal levels, and changes made to terms and conditions throughout the process that could potentially influence homeowner decisions. 3- To develop and provide strategies for improving the process of relocation from flood-prone areas by ensuring that stakeholders are engaged in the process and have the capacity to make informed decisions: This objective is ongoing and will be addressed in the final report. 4- To study, document and assess the property acquisition process, including the roles and participation of FEMA officials, local governments and homeowners, evaluate the social, economic and ecological the buyout/relocation process, and suggest improvements based on findings: We have made good progress here including the preparation of mapping and timelines of storm and flood events for several communities in Broome County. Through mapping we are examining the combined environmental risk and social vulnerability in these floodplain areas, and tracking what becomes of the parcels post-buyout. We are in the process of interviewing local municipal officials involved in the buyout process, as well as both homeowners who accepted a buyout offer and homeowners who choose not to relocate. Our interview questions attempt to reveal the key factors in homeowner decision making. The stories we are hearing relate personal experiences from the people directly involved in the flood of 2011 and the community buyout process. Interestingly, so far our interviewees have expressed several interesting points, including: 100% say their mental, physical and emotional health was negatively influenced by the buyout process; 100% expressed an anxious connection to the river, expressed as a constant monitoring of water levels via a NOAA website with river gage data; a 50-50 spilt regarding whether relocation is even a good option for their communities, as some see a loss of residents and tax base as concerning. Now halfway through this project, we see potential impacts in all three areas, knowledge, action and condition, but we expect our primary impacts to be related to actions. Knowledge: We hope to provide local officials and residents with a buyout and relocation guidebook that shares stories of other communities and offers guidance for the following: mapping community floodplains so that community members understand risk and planners and policy makers can assess the combined factors of environmental risk and social vulnerability. We hope to share the local stories with state and federal emergency management officials so that the flow of information among levels of government can be improved. Action: The project will result in actionable strategies for improving the process of buyout and relocation from flood risk zones at the local (for homeowners and municipalities), state and federal level. Improving the process could result in fewer people living in high risk floodplain zones. Condition: Once a prized asset in communities, rivers and floodplains are now seen as threats by many. This will only worsen with climate change. This research seeks to increase the likelihood that homeowners will have the resources they need to move out of harm's way, local governments will have the tools they need to help homeowners and to plan for viable futures for their communities, and state and federal officials can effectively facilitate the buyout process post-disaster, and the environmental, economic and social value of floodplains can be considered again.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Abstract for conference paper submitted to CELA Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture and proposal submitted for FEMA 2018 Annual Hazard Mitigation Stakeholder Workshop
|