Flood Risk and Property Rights in Delta Megacities

Northeastern University, Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

This research project will analyze the impact that growing awareness of future flood risk has on laws, policies, and norms concerning property rights in large metropolitan areas located in major river deltas. The investigator will examine social, political, and legal facets of a city that is undertaking massive and disruptive planning and infrastructural interventions in response to projections of significant increases in flooding. This project will contribute to basic understanding of the political and legal debates that emerge in flood-prone cities between those who argue that property rights need to be constrained to implement infrastructure improvements and enforce land-use regulations and those who advocate strengthening property rights to empower community-based efforts at flood mitigation. The project will inform debates about laws and policies concerning the terms of eviction and resettlement for flood mitigation initiatives. The project will also contribute to theoretical debates about the ways that hazard risk impacts dynamics of urban politics. The findings will provide new insights for flood-threatened cities in the United States, such as New Orleans, Boston, and New York, in addition to cities on other continents, such as Jakarta, Indonesia; Bangkok, Thailand; Manila, Philippines; Lagos, Nigeria; and Alexandria, Egypt. The project also will help build infrastructure for research on policy issues related to flooding and risk management in the United States and elsewhere. While substantial research attention has focused on infrastructural and governance questions related to floods, there has been relatively little attention given to the social, political, and legal implications of flooding. With increases in the number and magnitude of major urban floods in recent decades and further increases projected for the coming decades, however, many delta cities are undertaking policy and planning initiatives and political reforms that raise fundamental questions about the distribution of hazard resilience and the costs of mitigation efforts. Questions of property rights constitute a key element in debates over flood mitigation, because the interactions among land, water, and human systems that are under question in these debates are related intrinsically to the question of who has what rights to use land. This project will focus on key questions that are central to these issues: How have state actors sought to redefine property rights in light of flood risk? What strategies have non-state actors pursued to contest eviction and assert their own claims? What legal and institutional changes have resulted? What are the implications of these dynamic interactions for urban politics? In his investigation of a case study of one major metropolis astride a large delta, the investigator will review documents, policy reports, and media accounts, and he will conduct interviews with key actors in order to analyze court cases concerning the property rights of low-income communities that face eviction under government initiatives to "normalize" rivers to improve drainage. He will employ a geographic information system to evaluate the spatial dynamics of eviction accompanying efforts to increase green space. He also will analyze government reports and plans, academic studies, media accounts, and information garnered through interviews with key stakeholders to assess shifting perspectives on property rights resulting from a major government flood mitigation initiative. 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.