Floods and Equity: A Panel Discussion

Floods are the most destructive natural hazard, both at the national and international scale, and they disproportionately affect people of color and the poor. To understand this uneven exposure to floods requires that we understand the history of land use and institutional structures that have resulted in current exposure and inequitable allocation of resources for flood protection and for post-disaster aid (‘procedural vulnerability’). One of the most critical agencies is the US Army Corps of Engineers, whose cost-benefit analysis approach tends to preclude flood risk management projects in poor communities.

In this presentation, recorded on May 12, 2022, two panelists — Danielle Zoe Rivera, Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning in the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley, and Jessica Ludy, Flood Risk Program Manager and Environmental Justice Coordinator for the San Francisco District US Army Corps of Engineers — drew upon their research on these topics and discuss pathways to improving on the current situation.

This panel was co-sponsored by Social Science Matrix, Global Metropolitan Studies, and River-Lab, from the University of California, Berkeley.