Ordinary Policies Achieve Extraordinary Climate Adaptation
By Kimberly M. S. Cartier, Eos/AGU.
Excerpt: Consistently implementing zoning, permitting, and building regulations, all commonplace municipal tools, helped most New Jersey towns avoid floodplain development. New Jersey is one of the most flood-prone U.S. states, and climate change is increasing the hazard by raising sea levels and supercharging severe storms like Hurricane Sandy. The state also faces pressure to develop new housing and infrastructure, often in low-lying inland and coastal areas that are the most vulnerable to flooding. Despite this pressure, a recent analysis of new floodplain development found that 85% of New Jersey towns built relatively little in floodplains over the past 2 decades. Towns achieved this by applying routine land use management tools consistently over time, a slow but steady approach to climate adaptation. ...The most effective way to avoid flood damage to homes and infrastructure is to avoid building in a floodplain. ...Instead, recent research [A Nationwide Analysis of Community-Level Floodplain Development Outcomes and Key Influences, by Armen Agopian et al] has shown that most U.S. communities limit floodplain development more than expected given how much developable land they have in a floodplain. Even some communities that sit mostly or entirely within floodplains built most of their new structures on non-flood-prone land....