Challenges in Accounting for Equity in Urban Stormwater Management

Keywords: Urban flood, equity, planning, flood delineation, stormwater
Abstract Type: Guided Poster Abstract

Abstract

Globally, urban flooding results in rising costs and health burdens each year, costing billions of dollars in recovery and taking thousands of lives annually around the world. Flooding has been shown to disproportionately affect marginalized populations. Those unable to prevent or combat the economic upheaval associated with repetitive flooding are often impacted most. Flood mitigation planning that addresses community needs has been hindered by an inability to identify geographic boundaries of flooding, and therefore accurately delineate those impacted. Recent advances in remote sensing and data availability open up new opportunities for automated analysis that is large in scale and fine in resolution. However, as this study shows, many challenges, particularly in the urban zone, remain. Neighborhood residents and organizations hold a treasure of institutional knowledge about both extent and impacts of flooding. Collecting and integrating that data into design, planning, and management of infrastructure is challenging due to the disparate data type and nature of data collection. However, a combination of both physical and social data is needed in order to accurately account for flood impact on residents and methods that integrate them are still needed. Effectively and efficiently delineated flooding extents within the urban landscape at a resolution fine enough to identify those impacted by flooding is required to gain comprehensive solutions to urban flooding currently remain out of reach. Here we use examples from two flood prone, but distinct Philadelphia neighborhoods to show the challenges and range of potential results in defining the extent of urban flood impact.