ABSTRACT
The evolving risk of floods significantly threatens the economy, safety, and well-being of several regions globally. In 2020, the average annual loss due to floods in the United States was over $32 billion, projected to increase by over 26% by 2050 due to climate change. This calls for a critical need to proactively develop and implement climate adaptation strategies to ensure the integrity of earthen levees, which play a fundamental role in the nation’s flood protection systems. The levees in the United States have an average age of 57 years, most of which are under marginal conditions. Approximately two-thirds of the American population lives in counties protected by levees where floods disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities. We present a risk-based equitable adaptation strategy for levees in a changing climate that concurrently considers changes in hazard levels, vulnerability, and exposure. Identifying new patterns of climatic extremes and natural hazards (i.e., hazard levels) that impact the performance of current and future levee systems is the first step in achieving a climate-ready levee system. The next step involves characterizing the vulnerability of levee systems while considering the influence of climate-adjusted hazard levels. Finally, the proposed adaptation framework suggests considering changes in the exposure of assets and communities in levee-protected areas due to various factors (e.g., climate change, urbanization, land use, and land cover changes). The proposed adaptation framework intertwines engineering factors and socio-demographic attributes toward achieving resilient, sustainable, and equitable levee systems in a warming climate.
