Title:
Rural Flood Resilience & Adaptation: A Study of Rural Appalachia and Williamson, West Virginia
Rural Flood Resilience & Adaptation: A Study of Rural Appalachia and Williamson, West Virginia
Author(s)
Mitchem, Elizabeth
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Abstract
Every state in the nation is experiencing increased flooding, as a particular result of
increased extreme precipitation events. Planning emphasis in this realm has largely been
focused on coastal regions, but inland flooding is a growing issue of climate change
nationally and globally; “Inland flooding poses a massive threat to millions of homes across
the county, but this risk sometimes flies under the radar when media stories focus on large
coastal storms and flooding events'' (National Flood Services n.d.). There is a growing
urgency to understand flooding for communities outside of these coastal cities, and beyond
that, outside of ‘cities’ themselves; inland rural spaces are not immune from flooding.
Resiliency planning, designed for small, more rural communities, will be a necessary tool to
prepare, mitigate, and adapt to climate change impacts and severe flooding for small town
America.
Holistic inland flood planning — that connects adaptation and mitigation to concepts of
resilience — will allow states to allocate their resources and plan more effectively and
efficiently to curb inland flooding. Planning should include pragmatic strategies to
positively influence policy and programs across stakeholders at every level: from resident to
state office. This paper is an effort to situate this type of planning in rural Appalachia, and to
design a framework and recommendations that significantly support often vulnerable,
low-capacity, rural Appalachian communities.
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Date Issued
2023-04
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Text
Resource Subtype
Masters Project
Applied Research Paper
Applied Research Paper