Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6642-0591
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 4-30-2024
Publication Title
Nature Sustainability
Department
Thayer School of Engineering
Abstract
Decision-makers increasingly invoke equity to motivate, design, implement and evaluate strategies for managing flood risks. Unfortunately, there is little guidance on how analysts can develop measurements that support these tasks. Here we analyse how equity can be defined and measured by surveying 167 peer-reviewed publications that explicitly state an interest in equity in the context of flood-risk management. Our main result is a taxonomy that systematizes how equity has been, and can be, defined and measured in flood-risk research. The taxonomy embodies how equity is a pluralistic and unavoidably ethical concept. Despite this, we find that most quantitative studies fail to motivate or defend critical value judgements on which their findings depend. We also find that studies often include only a single equity measurement. This practice can overlook important trade-offs between competing perspectives on equity. For example, the few studies that employ distinct principles show that conclusions about equity depend on which principle underlies a specific measurement and how that principle is operationalized. We draw on our analysis to suggest practices for developing more useful equity indicators and performing more comprehensive quantitative equity assessments in the broader context of environmental risks.
DOI
10.1038/s41893-024-01345-3
Original Citation
Pollack, A.B., Helgeson, C., Kousky, C. et al. Developing more useful equity measurements for flood-risk management. Nat Sustain 7, 823–832 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01345-3
Dartmouth Digital Commons Citation
Pollack, Adam; Helgeson, Casey; Kousky, Carolyn; and Keller, Klaus, "Developing more useful equity measurements for flood-risk management" (2024). Dartmouth Scholarship. 4340.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/facoa/4340
Included in
Civil Engineering Commons, Emergency and Disaster Management Commons, Environmental Policy Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Risk Analysis Commons, Social Justice Commons
Comments
This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01345-3.