Browsing by Subject "Climate adaptation"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Open Access
Application of a Novel Climate Adaptation Tool for Prioritization of Historic Structures in Coastal National Parks
(2024-04-26) Craddock, Everett
Climate change poses a threat to future resource management in National Parks. For coastal parks, cultural resources such as historic structures are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change-related threats such as sea level rise and hurricane storm surge. In the summer of 2023, a novel tool was created at Cape Hatteras National Seashore to provide a simple methodology for prioritizing historic structures for climate adaptation based on physical vulnerability and historic significance metrics. The goal of this Master's Project is to assess the transferability of the novel climate change adaptation prioritization tool and compare the outputs of this tool to the most common climate change vulnerability assessment protocol used in coastal National Parks. The novel tool transferability assessment was conducted by applying the tool to historic structures in Cape Cod National Seashore and concluded that the current iteration of the tool requires modification for application in other parks due to inconsistencies of data applicability and availability and challenges in interpretation of the tool outputs. The comparison between the novel tool and the vulnerability assessment protocol revealed significant disparities between the assessment methodology and recommendations produced, and analysis of the outputs from both tools revealed substantial added value from significance metrics in the novel tool. Lessons learned from this analysis were used to produce recommendations for the National Park Service in development of climate change adaptation guidelines.
Open Access
COASTAL CLIMATE ADAPTATION: Ecological and Socioeconomic effects of Climate Change in Dare, Hyde, and Tyrrell Counties
(2012-04-26) Boudreau, Danielle
Climate change threatens the ecological and socioeconomic sustainability of Dare, Hyde, and Tyrrell counties as they are the three lowest-lying counties in all of North Carolina, making them particularly vulnerable to sea level rise (SLR) and changes in storm intensity and frequency. The objectives of this study are to : (1) summarize the socioeconomic importance of these three counties, including an evaluation of ecosystem services provided by coastal and marine environments; (2) project the potential biophysical impacts climate change may have in the future; and (3) conclude with an evaluation of the current climate adaptation policies and strategies, including land-use plans and shoreline stabilization, that the North Carolina state government, local county governments, and nonprofits are implementing. The research demonstrates that the local economies in these counties are driven by agriculture, commercial fisheries, and tourism, with ecosystem services providing valuable resources to both local and state populations. The consequences of climate change in the region are vast and unpredictable meaning effective climate adaptation strategies must be developed now before the implications of climate change become a reality. Current climate adaptation policies provide only short-term solutions to a long-term problem. It is recommended that communities weigh the economic, social, and cultural costs of armoring the shoreline versus retreating further inland. Conservation organizations should focus their efforts inland in order to acquire conservation easements anticipating where the coastline will be in 100 years.
Open Access
Coastal Migration and Climate Adaptation
(2020-04-20) Sugerik, Corey; Zhu, Kunxin
The increasing risk associated with more frequent and severe hurricanes and flooding, coastal erosion, and sea level rise have led to more consideration of human migration away from the coast of the United States. The decision to migrate is a complex process that weighs a variety of factors, and climate related risks play only a small role in that process. This project attempts to shed light on the various factors that influence migration decision making and tries to develop a quantitative and qualitative understanding of the weight that climate change and its associated risks play in that decision making. This project utilizes a survey delivered to Florida homeowners and a regression analysis of the infoUSA dataset to begin to unpack these challenging questions. The results from the survey provided insight into how much weight climate risks carried in the decision to migrate compared to other life events, and also provided quantitative results for willingness-to-accept buyouts and willingness-to-pay for a “rentback” scenario. The results from the regression analysis found that the potential positive relationship between migration and natural disaster is highly sensitive to the definition of migration, suggesting that micro-level data might be more helpful for the research question. This project serves as a jumping-off point for further research and studies on coastal migration and climate adaptation.
Open Access
Essays on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
(2023) Ma, Yu
This dissertation is an empirical study of the livestock industry and its environmental impacts on residents. Concentrated animal feeding operations, abbreviated as CAFOs, are livestock production facilities where large numbers of animals are raised in confined spaces. Although the hog and poultry industries provide jobs and economic benefits, they also produce significant air pollution, contaminate waterways, and affect people's quality of life. North Carolina (NC) is currently the third largest hog producing state in the nation and also hosts a high concentration of poultry farms. Most of the animal farms are located in the eastern area of the state, which is also the area where many low-income people and people of color (POC) reside.
Because of environmental pollution produced by CAFOs, local real estate markets could be affected. Chapter 4 examines how having CAFOs nearby could affect housing price. In this co-authored paper, we utilize housing transaction data from CoreLogic and study the impacts of CAFOs on housing price. We consider co-location of hogs and poultry and separately examine the impacts for houses on private wells and community water systems as water contamination is channeled as an important exposure route. Results show significant housing price reductions for nearby housing properties. The costs increase disproportionately for really large CAFO exposure and are even larger for the houses with private wells. We find that being exposed to the highest levels of exposure to hogs could cause housing price decreases ranging from 13% to 50% for houses with private wells, while only a 13% to 27% price decrease for community-water-dependent houses, depending on the distance between CAFOs and the residential property.
In NC, most of the farms are located in the eastern region, where many communities of color and low-income populations live, and such high concentration raises environmental justice concerns. Chapter 5 explores the relationship between race and income and exposure to CAFOs. In this co-authored paper, we collect information on both hog and poultry farms, use novel micro-data from InfoUSA, and investigate how exposure varies by both income and race. We find POC are more likely to be exposed to both hogs and poultry. Results show strong evidence of high exposure for low-income Hispanic households, compared to white households. Higher income helps reduce the exposure gap for Hispanics, but does not similarly help Black residents, suggesting such uneven exposure patterns are more related to race other than class.
Climate change brings another challenge to CAFOs. During the past two hurricane events in NC, Hurricane Matthew (2016) and Hurricane Florence (2018), CAFOs caused large damages to local communities and contaminated neighborhood drinking water sources. In my job market paper, I first use individual demographic data from InfoUSA to examine household's out-migration behaviors after floods. Results suggest floods make people move out, especially for those with CAFOs around or with private wells. Besides out-migration behaviors, this study also examines how household race and income composition change after floods. Results show more lower-income and POC households move into flooded areas, especially places near animal farms, after floods. Such migration patterns highlight equity concerns under climate change and in the future hurricane events.
Open Access
Evaluating Need for Adaptation for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District Reservoirs
(2016-04-29) Tchamkina, Mary
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owns and operates over 500 reservoirs in the U.S., the majority of which are 50 years old. As the agency looks to the future, it is crucial for it to understand which reservoirs continue to meet design and operational goals. This report examines the Corps’ reservoir policy and historic operations to assess the reservoirs’ need for adaptation, focusing on the Wilmington District in Southeastern U.S. Four metrics are developed using Corps data and documentation. The metrics are synthesized via a model that presents 5 Wilmington reservoirs as a system. The model helps visualize concepts of operational flexibility and thresholds of adaptation, though reliable estimates of the latter could not be gleaned from Corps documentation. The report concludes that the agency's wide discretion is at odds with the establishment of thresholds for adaptation. This disincentive may undermine the Corps' ability to prepare for climate challenges of the 21st century.
Open Access
Incorporating Participatory Planning Processes for Engaging with Smallholder Coffee Farmers in Climate Change Resiliency Planning in Latin America
(2024-04-26) Markowitz, Kristy
Coffee production in Latin America, accounting for 60% of the world’s coffee output, is vital for 25 million smallholder farmers many of whom live in the most biodiverse regions. The susceptibility of coffee crops to weather fluctuations makes them vulnerable to climate change. Participatory approaches are instrumental in identifying context-specific climate-resilient measures. This study focuses on integrating participatory approaches to an organization’s educational model providing capacity building to smallholder farmers. A participatory workshop was designed and implemented with a focus group of coffee farmers in Honduras to identify climate strategies for their coffee production and test participatory approaches. A pre-survey was deployed to gather perceptions on climate impacts and adaptations in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Survey results helped inform the design of the workshop. In general, results show that coffee farmers are experiencing climate changes that impact their well-being and that of their families. Workshop results demonstrate that workshop participants have positive reactions to the participatory format. Findings suggest that the participatory approaches used in the workshop are effective at engaging coffee producers in climate-resilient planning and identifying strategies to adapt.
Open Access
Nature-based Urban Flood Resilience: a policy analysis of natural flood mitigation measures in sea level rise planning in New Orleans, New York City, and San Francisco
(2017-08-18) Myers, Michelle
Sea level rise (SLR) and severe weather events have already exposed the vulnerability of coastal cities to flood events. Regional planning bodies are developing comprehensive plans to build resiliency utilizing both hardened and natural flood mitigation measures. While the plans use living shorelines and wetland restoration to buffer coastal regions, land managers have uncertainty to the level of protection these measures provide and a bias to maintain hardened shorelines and levee infrastructure. In addition, there are barriers to implementation of SLR adaptation plans in permitting, funding and land tenure. Research methods for the project include a literature review of resiliency planning documents and related articles, as well as interviews with resiliency planning staff in the case study areas of New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Policy recommendations are made that include: standardizing economic valuation and performance matrices of natural flood barriers, simplifying agency approvals, developing managed retreat practices and project migration zones, and increasing federal funding while identifying local resources for adaptation projects.
Open Access
Preparation is the Key to Success: Strategies for Pre-Emptive Managed Retreat in Vulnerable Coastal Municipalities
(2024-04-26) Mitchell, Elizabeth
Introduction As climate change increasingly affects communities, vulnerable coastal municipalities are grappling with more severe and frequent flooding and stronger storms. Coastal communities must consider ways to adapt to climate change effects by implementing planning tools that make communities more resilient. One planning tool, managed retreat, moves people and property out of harm’s way through strategies like government-facilitated buyouts and acquisitions and economic- and zoning-based techniques like rolling easements and transfer of development rights. Managed retreat in the United States has traditionally been implemented after Presidentially Declared Disasters, leveraging post-disaster federal funding to move people out of the most severely damaged properties in affected communities. However, communities are increasingly considering future flood risk and are planning pre-emptive, or pre-disaster, managed retreat programs. This project defines pre-emptive managed retreat programs as ones proactively planning for or addressing natural hazards exposure that do not rely on post-disaster federal funding to finance the programs. Because pre-emptive managed retreat programs are still relatively rare, studying programs that have already been planned or implemented can provide insights into the retreat strategies communities are using, how communities are overcoming program hurdles, and information about people’s attitudes towards climate change-related hazards and retreat. This project aims to understand the pre-emptive managed retreat strategies that coastal communities in the eastern United States are using, as well as the challenges these early adopters have faced. It also aims to understand how communities are financing or planning to finance pre-emptive retreat because these programs are very expensive and there is limited federal funding for pre-disaster retreat. The project also explores the ways government leaders have engaged with community members and how community engagement shaped the program development process. Finally, this project uncovers information about program implementation timelines and the ways communities are bridging the gap between planning and implementation. Methods I addressed my research questions through the case study analysis of six coastal communities in the eastern United States that are planning for or implementing pre-emptive managed retreat programs. I identified pre-emptive managed retreat programs in Massachusetts, Virginia, and Florida to get geographic representation along the coast, and focused on two programs in each state for inter- and intra-state comparison. I started by analyzing planning documents available online which built my baseline knowledge about each program and helped me identify gaps in that knowledge. I next conducted 13 semi-structured interviews with local government leaders which helped me gain additional information to answer the questions I identified during the plan analysis process. Finally, I analyzed the interview transcripts by conducting a theme analysis to better understand details about the programs’ financing, community engagement, and implementation. Results In addition to program-specific details about the retreat strategies communities are using, and financing, community engagement, and implementation details for each program, I identified common themes among municipalities. First, financing is a barrier to implementation. Municipal budgets are not large enough to fund large-scale retreat programs. Particularly because the real estate market is extremely hot across the country, potential participants can easily sell their homes on the regular market. Communities are working to get funding from state and federal sources, which may help fill the funding gap. Additionally, pre-emptive retreat is generally viewed as a future necessity. Pre-emptive retreat is seen as a fork in the road that communities might need to take in the future rather than a pressing current reality. In some cases, this future planning approach reflects the community’s view that managed retreat will be necessary for future generations of homeowners, not the current homeowners in the municipality. Even if communities wait to implement these programs, planning for managed retreat in the near term allows community leaders to be prepared when residents need to retreat and gives leaders time to discuss the subject of retreat with residents through continued engagement efforts. Community engagement will be particularly important during the years before program implementation because no community plans to use eminent domain. All near-term programs will be voluntary, which will require government leaders to get community buy-in, especially for programs where specific neighborhoods are planned for retreat. There is little-to-no coordination among communities. This is a missed opportunity for programs to avoid missteps and share ideas and resources that might improve the retreat process. Professional networks may be an appropriate and convenient forum for these conversations, and governments may also consider integrating engagement with other program leaders into the community engagement process during program planning. Finally, the policy entrepreneurs I spoke with inspired me with their dedication to improving community resilience, viewing retreat not as a failure but as an opportunity to build a stronger community. Despite the challenges these leaders face in planning and implementing pre-emptive retreat programs, they are determined to equip their communities for future hazards and mitigate future climate risk through retreat. This project broadens research on managed retreat programs by focusing on pre-emptive retreat, which is relatively uncommon compared to post-disaster retreat. Understanding the strategies communities are using to pre-emptively plan for retreat and how these communities are addressing funding, community engagement, and implementation challenges can help build institutional knowledge about pre-emptive managed retreat among the academic community and practitioners. Pre-emptive managed retreat allows communities to plan for and implement retreat programs outside a post-disaster scenario, which can move people and property out of harm’s way before the next disaster. Studying six case study communities that have planned or implemented pre-emptive managed retreat programs demonstrated the types of retreat strategies communities are considering, details about how communities can overcome retreat challenges, and common themes that are present among the cases. These cases demonstrate that, despite the challenges, pre-emptive retreat program planning is a viable and meaningful step in adaptation planning and can help communities prepare for future climate change effects.