ABSTRACT
Early settlements were co-located with rivers for provision of multiple resources. Floodplain soils are nutrient rich for agriculture, fish migrations produced an excellent seasonal food source, and rivers provided power with simple technologies and transport of goods to support trade. Later channelization, construction of levees, and filling of wetlands allowed development to migrate toward channel banks. Today, more than 30 million people live in US floodplains. In 2016, flooding led the list of costs for climate-based disasters, and last year, Congress was forced to forgive a $16 billion debt to keep the beleaguered National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) afloat. Created to dissuade floodplain development, the current NFIP leaves homeowners ‘blind to dangers’ or trapped in flood-prone homes. In the northeastern US, many municipalities are reckoning with keeping residents of floodplain housing safe while struggling with population loss and economic decline; at the same time climate models predict increasing frequency of flooding due to larger and more intense storms. Along the Upper Susquehanna River, recent extreme flood events have created a conflicted relationship with the many small towns and cities that exist along its banks. The response is often protective—some residents would like to wall off the river and send floodwater downstream. Just as disasters create policy windows, we speculate that coupled socio-economic and environmental disturbances and uncertainty can be drivers for experimental and adaptive design. We ask how can risk, uncertainty, climate adaptation, and the desire to better balance social-economic-ecological value drive the (re)design of community floodplains?
