A vast majority of communities throughout areas across the United States are seeing population decrease due to floods, according to new research. These neighborhoods are typically located in areas with a growing populations overall, which includes areas in Florida, Texas and the area around Washington, D.C.
The results highlight the extent to which flood risk that is increasing because of climate change is already impacting the areas where Americans reside.
“People are more conscious of their homes,” says Jeremy Porter who is one of the authors of the study. He is also researcher at the First Street Foundation, a research and advocacy group which publishes analysis of floods and climate risks. It was reported in Nature Communications.
Americans are moving to certain vulnerable areas of the country to flooding including coastal areas and low-lying cities like Florida, Texas and coastal Virginia. In the same way heavy rainfall and rising sea levels due to climate change are becoming more and more frequent.
In the end, the price of flooding across the U.S. has increased dramatically during the last few years. It is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, homeowners’ insurance firms as well as experts in the field of climate and housing all warn that the huge cost of flood-related losses can be a drain on families or the economy.
In the same way buyers of homes are becoming more aware and wary of flooding risks. More and more states are mandating that buyers receive information on the likelihood of flooding a home in the past, and if it will be flooded in the near future. Certain real estate listings sites contain information on the risk of flooding. The public is less likely to seek flood-prone homes when they are given information on the listing of whether the property has been affected by flooding before or could be flooded in the near future, as per an analysis conducted by real estate site Redfin.
If people try to stay clear of going to flood-prone areas Why do so many end up in the affected areas of the nation? The authors of this new study provide a fresh perspective.
They examined the number of people who reside within each one of the 11 million census block in the adjacent U.S., and analyzed the way that this number fluctuated in areas that have flooding exposure compared to areas with smaller areas that are less exposed to flooding. They discovered that around 7 percent in census block – about equivalent to a large city block have experienced a decline in the population due to exposure to flooding.
They estimate that the communities saw an overall loss of around 9 million people between 2000 to 2020. The study also revealed that a large portion of the neighborhoods are in areas that are growing all-around, such as South Florida and Southeast Texas.
The findings suggest that the increase in new residents to cities that are prone to flooding like Miami or San Antonio may obscure the millions of people shifting to smaller towns in order to escape the most slumbering areas in these cities.
Moving towards in the Sun Belt “are a macro shift in the direction of migration,” explains Porter. “But they’re eclipsed by the number of people who move within the same city. Maintain the same job and keep the same group of friends, and stay close to the family.”
Research has shown that the majority of people stay in their area when they move into the new location, which is true even when flooding caused them to move. This means that decisions regarding the best place to live and how to remain safe from harm’s way frequently are based on block-by-block comparisons as well as house-by-house comparisons.
Although the risk of flooding plays an impact on where people live, social factors like classes and race are crucial, according to Kevin Loughran, a sociologist at Temple University who studies relocation from flood zones.
“Flood risk or risk of environmental impact in general, isn’t the only factor that they use in making these decisions,” says Loughran.
The new study provides an entirely new level of knowledge about how the risk of flooding may be affecting populations in the local area according to the report. However, the specifics are unclear, and more studies are being carried out by social scientists and other researchers to determine exactly how those who live in areas impacted by climate change decide when or where to relocate.
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