(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-05)
Tatum, Kimberly
As climate change leads to higher sea levels and stronger
storms, many coastal cities will be increasingly at risk of a major local
disaster destroying homes and vital urban infrastructure. Hurricane Katrina
demonstrated how such a disaster can result in displacement of many citizens
and how their social connections or existing disaster management procedures
push them towards other cities, where they may settle permanently. Atlanta,
as a major population center and transportation nexus for the south, should
expect to receive high numbers of people forced to flee other southern cities
in similar scenarios. This paper describes Atlanta’s migration shed: which
coastal areas typically send people to Atlanta, which are at highest risk of
future climate change impacts, and how many people could leave these areas
for Atlanta. The analysis includes examinations of disaster and non-disaster
migrations and sea level rise and storm vulnerability geographies in southern
coastal counties. The final section consists of recommendations for a
reevaluation of disaster preparedness considerations from a larger regional
perspective.