Socio-Spatial Inequities in Wind Risk Reduction Through Enhanced Building Codes: A Distributional Justice Analysis

• In Event: Environmental Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 10: From Environmental Risk to Social Response

Abstract

Distributional environmental justice research has documented socio-spatial inequalities in exposure to climatic risks, such as hurricane-related storm surge, with comparatively sparse attention paid to wind risk. Moreover, although building community resilience to climatic hazards is widely emphasized, questions remain regarding how to do so equitably. Further, while scholarship on the equitability of climate policies remains nascent, available studies have predominantly focused on global-scale inequalities and disparities associated with economic disadvantage, with limited attention paid to neighborhood-level variations and other dimensions of social vulnerability. The present study addresses these gaps by examining, at the census tract level, socio-spatial inequities in the distribution of hurricane wind risk reduction benefits associated with the enforcement of enhanced building codes in the Louisiana Coastal Zone. Focusing on multiple dimensions of social vulnerability, including class composition, racial composition, rurality, and homeownership status, we analyze modeled wind damage reductions under three hypothetical mitigation scenarios: FORTIFIED Roof, FORTIFIED Silver standard and FORTIFIED Gold standard. Linking wind damage reduction data to sociodemographic data from the 2018–2022 American Community Survey (ACS) five-year estimates and the 2020 Decennial Census, this study uses spatial regression methods to examine associations between social vulnerability attributes and wind risk reduction metrics. Preliminary results show that while census tracts with a higher proportion of renter occupied housing benefit from greater reductions in wind damage, those with a higher proportion of rural residents and residents employed in natural resource, construction, and maintenance occupations benefit relatively less from such reductions. This study shows that while enhanced building codes could be effective in reducing certain distributional inequalities in wind risk, they may not be equally effective in reducing others. The findings further suggest that inequities may arise not only from uneven enforcement, but also from disparities in the efficacy of risk reduction measures.

Authors

• Naduni Jayasinghe, Louisiana State University

• Kevin T. Smiley, Louisiana State University

• Ayat Al Assi, LaHouse Research and Education Center, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA

• Nehal Mahmud Khan, LaHouse Research and Education Center, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

• Rubayet Bin Mostafiz, LaHouse Research and Education Center, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA