Extreme events provide a window into the challenges facing socioeconomically vulnerable communities. Hurricanes and floods have highlighted the fact that these communities are, for reasons historic and otherwise, often hit the hardest. Lack of transportation to evacuate a flooded area, living in older, less flood-resistant housing, or working minimum wage service jobs are just a few examples of how socioeconomic vulnerability contributes to heightened environmental risk. Furthermore, in the aftermath, these communities face additional challenges to restoring their living situations because they lack the resources and are often left for last in recovery efforts. In addition, many of them may depend on ecosystem services and natural resources for their livelihoods that have been impaired by the storm. UCS work has shown that by 2030 over 50% of communities at risk of chronic tidal inundation due to sea level rise have at least one census tract with high socioeconomic vulnerability – and sea level rise is expected to make storm surge impacts worse.
Results/Conclusions
The 2017 hurricane season showed that practically no environmental justice lessons were learned from Katrina and Sandy: we saw similar shortcomings when it came to helping these communities rebound. Since climate change is already affecting the frequency and extent of extreme events such as extreme precipitation, and is expected to make hurricanes stronger, with more associated rain, tailored initiatives for enhancing preparedness and adaptive capacity in physically exposed, socially vulnerable areas will be needed. A comprehensive analysis of the factors contributing to social vulnerability is needed for each community at risk. The range of causes of social vulnerability suggests that resilience building will need to vary in accordance with the specific challenges each community faces, and equitable outcomes need to be prioritized.