ABSTRACT

The impact of recent flood events, such as hurricane Harvey in 2017 which affected the upper Texas coastal region, has sparked new proposals for buying out damaged properties to reduce flood risk and return them to natural open space. Traditionally, buyouts have been carried out with little regard for non-monetary benefits, such as ecological and aesthetic values, but have been driven by a cost–benefit calculus that leads to a reactionary, ad hoc selection process after a flood event has already occurred. This standard practice can result in a disjointed pattern of open spaces that does little to protect environmental assets. In response to the lack of research that also considers the complementary ecological benefits of buyout programmes, this study tests a methodological framework that identifies candidate parcels for acquisition along a spectrum of ecological and proximity variables, by statistically and spatially identifying the nexus between ecological value and economic benefits when acquiring flooded properties. Importantly, we show that including these criteria does not significantly reduce the cost-effectiveness of buyouts and that acquiring parcels for flood risk reduction can be combined with protecting ecological values in a way that helps communities to become more resilient over the long term.

摘要

最近的洪水事件的影响，例如2017年的哈维飓风影响了得克萨斯州上游沿海地区，引发了新的提议，要求购买受损财产以减少洪水风险并将其返回自然开放空间。传统上，买断交易几乎不考虑非货币利益，例如生态和美学价值，但是却受到成本效益演算的推动，在洪水事件发生后，这种演算导致了反应性的临时选择过程。此标准做法可能导致开放空间的脱节模式，对保护环境资产几乎没有作用。由于缺乏研究也考虑了收购计划的互补生态效益，这项研究测试了一种方法框架，该方法框架通过统计和空间上确定获取淹没资产时的生态价值与经济效益之间的联系，来确定沿一系列生态和邻近变量确定要收购的地块。重要的是，我们表明，包括这些标准并不会显着降低买断的成本效益，并且为降低洪水风险而购买地块可以与保护生态价值相结合，从而帮助社区在长期内变得更具弹性。