Assessing the environmental justice consequences of flood risk: a case study in Miami, Florida

Abstract

Recent environmental justice (EJ) research has emphasized the need to analyze social inequities in the distribution of natural hazards such as hurricanes and floods, and examine intra-ethnic diversity in patterns of EJ. This study contributes to the emerging EJ scholarship on exposure to flooding and ethnic heterogeneity by analyzing the racial/ethnic and socioeconomic characteristics of the population residing within coastal and inland flood risk zones in the Miami Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), Florida-one of the most ethnically diverse MSAs in the U.S. and one of the most hurricane-prone areas in the world. We examine coastal and inland flood zones separately because of differences in amenities such as water views and beach access. Instead of treating the Hispanic population as a homogenous group, we disaggregate the Hispanic category into relevant country-oforigin subgroups. Inequities in flood risk exposure are statistically analyzed using socio-demographic variables derived from the 2010 U.S. Census and 2007-2011 American Community Survey estimates, and 100-year flood risk zones from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Social vulnerability is represented with two neighborhood deprivation indices called economic insecurity and instability. We also analyze the presence of seasonal/vacation homes and proximity to public beach access sites as water-related amenity variables. Logistic regression modeling is utilized to estimate the odds of neighborhood-level exposure to coastal and inland 100-year flood risks. Results indicate that neighborhoods with greater percentages of non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics, and Hispanic subgroups of Colombians and Puerto Ricans are exposed to inland flood risks in areas without water-related amenities, while Mexicans are inequitably exposed to coastal flood risks. Our findings demonstrate the importance of treating coastal and inland flood risks separately while controlling for water-related amenities, and recognizing intra-ethnic diversity within the Hispanic category to obtain a more comprehensive assessment of the social distribution of flood risks.

Exposure to Flood Hazards in Miami and Houston: Are Hispanic Immigrants at Greater Risk than Other Social Groups?

“…This positive association between rating the proximity to a river or lake as a more important consideration when selecting the current home and greater odds of flood risk is expected based on the literature [25,47,48,49]. …”

“…Despite flood hazards being framed as an environmental injustice issue by only a small body of literature [21], studies on race/ethnicity and flood exposure have found that minorities may be disproportionately exposed in some contexts [12,22,23,24,25,26], and that the heightened exposure of minorities to hazards often has historically unjust roots. In Austin (TX, USA), periodic flooding was a factor in the racial segregation of the city, where Hispanics and Blacks were marginalized to areas most prone to flooding [27].…”

“…Water-based amenities are often correlated with heightened exposure to flood hazards, since such amenities and flood risks are not easily divisible from one another (or easy to separate from one another, as both are natural features of proximity to bodies of water) [25,45,46,47]. Thus, living at risk to flooding may be driven in part by corresponding locational environmental benefits [1].…”

Allocation of risk and benefits—distributional justices in mountain hazard management

“…To achieve a fair distribution, the political discussion and especially institutions (formal and informal) have to be changed. Justice in natural hazard and risk management demands more than just a fair socio-economic distribution or recognition of cultural roots (Campbell 2012;May and Morrow 2012;Neal et al 2014;Zwarteveen and Boelens 2014). Justice also relates to the process by which a certain distribution is selected (procedural justice), but this aspect is not covered by this paper.…”

Evaluating Conveyance-Based DEM Correction Technique on NED and SRTM DEMs for Flood Impact Assessment of the 2010 Cumberland River Flood

“…Floods account for 43% of all natural disasters [1] that cause death, adverse health effects, property damage, and socio-economic imbalance [2][3][4]. By 2001, flooding became seven times more frequent around the world compared to 1975.…”