The Environmental Justice of Urban Flood Risk and Green Infrastructure Solutions project aims to better understand the environmental justice impacts of climate change related flooding on minority and low-income communities and assess social equity in green infrastructure planning for reducing urban flood risks. Through data visualization and modeling future flood risk, the project will address two central questions concerning flood risk, and green infrastructure development: (1) Who is more exposed to flooding? And (2) who benefits most by current green infrastructure plans or developments?
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Recent Work and Products
Climate Ready Uptown Plan
The Climate Ready Uptown Plan (CRUP) is a physical pamphlet that helps Northern Manhattan community members understand their individual risk to climate related disasters – specifically extreme heat, coastal and stormwater (pulluvial) flooding – and provides pertinent information to help prepare themselves and their families. Designed by WE ACT for Environmental Justice in partnership with East Harlem COAD, Harlem Emergency Network and Urban Systems Lab, the Plan is tailored to residents of Northern Manhattan to better understand their flood risk. From the onset, CRUP was designed with community at the forefront. WE ACT’s Climate Justice Working Group helped with the initial planning, research and layout of the tool, and scenario planning meetings as well as focus groups with Northern Manhattan residents helped WE ACT refine the messaging and language included in the plan to make it as effective and relatable as possible.
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Saw Mill River Watershed Flood Vulnerability Modeling Project
This effort was a collaboration with Groundwork Hudson Valley and the Saw Mill River Coalition to assses flood exposure along the Saw Mill River Watershed near Yonkers, NY. The effort involved an extensive hydrological modeling assessment to address a key priority of the Coalition’s 5-year Watershed Action Plan, developed in 2020 with support from the New York State Hudson River Estuary Program (HREP). This project aims to help the watershed community prepare for the increasing risks of flooding and extreme weather driven by a warming climate.
Milwaukee Flood Health Vulnerability Assessment
The Milwaukee Flood and Health Vulnerability Assessment (FHVA) is a collaborative effort between Groundwork Milwaukee and The New School’s Urban Systems Lab to develop an assessment tool which identifies communities across Milwaukee where exposure to urban flooding and pre-existing health, housing and socioeconomic conditions intersect and create disproportionate vulnerabilities to the impacts caused by extreme flooding.
