Elevating community voices: The importance of engagement in achieving climate justice and flood resiliency

by Trine Stausgaard Munk and Simon Kates

 

For many communities, flood resilience is a key concern. Droughts torment our summers and floods destroy our autumns and winters, affecting our cities, towns, and landscapes. How do we adapt our communities and infrastructure to keep us safe from more frequent and intense flooding? Nature-based solutions and smart water management can mitigate the impact of extreme weather by implementing more sustainable ways of collecting, storing, and reusing water. But these solutions alone are not enough.

The planning and implementation of flood resilience measures must go beyond simply protecting infrastructure and consider the needs and rights of the community’s residents. The concept of Climate Justice recognizes that marginalized and other high-vulnerability communities are often experiencing the most devastating long-term consequences of flooding. These communities are often the least able to cope and recover from such disasters due to limited resources, lack of equitable recognition and political power, as well as inclusion.

Truly worthwhile and pioneering urban resilience is created when community engagement and climate justice are at the forefront. Upgrading blue and green infrastructure for flood resiliency is a great opportunity to rethink urban spaces and create social value for community members. To do this we must engage local stakeholders in the planning and design process to ensure the success of flood resilience initiatives. Community engagement helps the design team and municipal leaders understand the key issues, focuses the project on local priorities and builds consensus to aid in implementing urban resilience solutions.

In Washington DC, we are working alongside Simon Kates and our colleagues at Ramboll to actively engage the local community on a flood resilience project with the local government. The comprehensive engagement plan will engender public understanding and create long-term project stakeholders with inter-agency groups, civic groups, public housing representatives, large property owners, children and youth, and the broader community. By cultivating early inclusivity and broad engagement and fostering meaningful dialogues and stakeholder-driven design, the project will be a transparent, accountable process grounded in community relationships.

The focus of the project is the creation of new community amenities through storm water flood mitigation. Utilizing existing open spaces, a new network of blue and green infrastructure will be determined by community co-design. People in target neighborhoods will not only benefit from reduced flood risk but also from increased greenery and lower summer temperatures, and improved recreation areas that become ‘floodable’ public spaces such as great parks.

Increasing the quality of urban spaces can create space for learning, sport and play, gathering and community events, and restoration and calm. By taking a life-centered approach we can pioneer urban resilience and maximize the socio-economic outcomes of available public and private funding.

 

What is climate justice?

Climate Justice is the idea that everyone has a right to a safe and healthy environment, and that those who are most vulnerable to the impact of climate change, such as marginalized communities and those living in poverty, have often contributed the least and are most affected the negative consequences, such as natural disasters, loss of resources and displacement. Climate Justice creates a more equitable approach to addressing and adapting to climate change, one that considers the needs and rights of all people.