Adaptive Land Lab

Growing flood risk under climate change are exerting pressures and demands to relocate households living in repetitively flooded sites. However, the primary U.S. federal floodplain buyout program is widely criticized as being overly bureaucratic and inequitable, while not helping communities restore sites to “mother nature” after a buyout has been completed. This project examines subnational (state, county, and local) buyout programs to see what lessons they offer federal programs in enhancing the equity and ecological restoration of buyouts.

This project has published two articles:

• Shi, L., Slyman, S.*, Hulet, C., Morgenstern Brenner, R., Shepard, C., Vanucchi, J. (2023). “Integrating the Social and Ecological in Floodplain Relocation and Restoration Programs.” Socio-Ecological Practice Research, 5(238–251).

• Shi, L., Fisher, A.⁺, Morgenstern Brenner, R., Greiner-Safi, A., Shepard, C., & Vanucchi, J. (2022). “Equitable Buyouts? Learning from State, County, and Local Floodplain Management Programs.” Climatic Change, 174, 29.

A third publication on the ecological outcomes under different management strategies is in progress. Through this work, we are engaging policymakers in the state of New York and beyond on policy initiatives to develop statewide buyout / managed retreat programs can learn from research and empirical evidence on what works and doesn't. 

The project is funded by a Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability Innovation for Impact grant (2020-2022), in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Collaborating principal investigators from Cornell include: Dr. Rebecca Morgenstern Brenner in the School of Public Policy, Dr. Amelia Greiner-Safi in the Department of Public Health and Department of Communication, and Prof. Jamie Vanucchi in the Department of Landscape Architecture. TNC collaborators include Dr. Christine Shepard and Nate Woiwode. A large team of master’s in regional planning, landscape architecture, and public policy have contributed to this project.