DISES: Abating Mobility Equity Gaps Induced by Nuisance Flooding in Underserved Communities

This interdisciplinary project in close collaboration with partners in Philadelphia, PA, is designed to reduce the vulnerability of underserved communities to the social and environmental impacts of urban nuisance flooding events. Challenges from nuisance flooding, or frequent but small-magnitude flood events, are being exacerbated as increasingly frequent and severe rainfall coincides with intense urban growth.

Urban nuisance flooding events stress transportation infrastructure, shutting down portions of the transportation network and making transportation facilities temporarily inaccessible or difficult to access. This is particularly acute in underserved communities where: (a) residents rely on modes of travel (e.g., buses, trains, bicycles, pedestrian paths) that are impacted by nuisance flooding; (b) urban flood events tend to impact the same locations repeatedly; and (c) residents, already burdened by a combination of socioeconomic, environmental, and mobility barriers, may find it challenging to adapt their travel patterns.

While our understanding of flood-induced mobility patterns is beginning to take shape, we lack a systematic framework to understand the mobility barriers and disparities induced by nuisance flooding. Broader impacts include training for residents to be community educators to disseminate information and resources related to nuisance flooding, as well as interdisciplinary scientific and technical training and experience in community engagement for graduate students.

The overarching goal of this project is to reduce the vulnerability of underserved communities to the social and environmental impacts of urban nuisance flood events and develop and implement a science-informed, community-based solution in underserved communities to ameliorate equity discrepancies resulting from the impacts of nuisance flooding. This is achieved through three research activities co-produced in close collaboration with nuisance flood-prone communities in Philadelphia, PA.

First, the spatiotemporal extent of nuisance flood risk is identified for a range of storm events. Second, novel strategies are identified to reduce the mobility barriers and disparities induced by urban nuisance flooding in these communities. Third, a science-based, community-centered interactive strategic planning approach is constructed, drawing on cross-disciplinary science to achieve equitable adaptation to the evolving risk of nuisance flooding.

The research activities incorporate equity into urban nuisance flood mitigation strategies by analyzing the socio-environmental system comprising the two elements of human mobility and nuisance flood, which interact through the built-environment parameters. The outcomes add important nuance to knowledge on urban mobility by focusing on the impacts of an increasingly common environmental hazard.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.