Adaptive Land Lab

Rising sea levels threatened to eventually permanently inundated vast areas of developed coastlines. These impacts not only affect residents and community well-being, but also the fiscal health of municipalities, especially in countries where local governments heavily rely on property taxes. This study examines the extent to which local revenues are impacted by sea level rise in Massachusetts and Florida. This project has resulted in:

• A journal publication (with Andrew Varuzzo, MRP ’18) assessing impacts on coastal municipalities in Massachusetts and showing how cities are cognizant of flood risks yet continue to build in vulnerable areas partly due to fiscal imperatives.

• A workshop course with the towns of Hull, Hingham, and Cohasset, together with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. This produced an assessment pointing to the need for regional housing and planning to cope with long-term fiscal vulnerability to climate change. A corresponding project through Dr. Jennifer Minner’s land use planning methods course provided supporting analysis. The project won the American Planning Association’s national Student Project Award in 2020.

• Ongoing research on fiscal vulnerability in Florida, along with survey data demonstrating the lack of coastal planners’ awareness of fiscal vulnerability and imperatives for action. This project is in collaboration with Dr. William Butler and Dr. Tisha Holmes at Florida State University, Jon Ignatowski (MRP ’20) and Cornell PhD students Ryan Thomas and Yousuf Mahid.

This project is funded by the Cornell Institute for Social Science (now Cornell Center for Social Science).