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Abstract Disasters worldwide tend to affect the poorest more severely and increase inequality. Brazil is one of the countries with high income‐inequality rates and has unplanned urbanization issues and an extensive disaster risk profile with little knowledge on how those disasters affect people's welfare. Thus, disasters often hit the poorest hardest, increasing the country's income inequality and poverty rates. This study proposes a method to assess the impact of floods on households spatially based on their income levels by conducting flood analysis and income analysis. The method is applied to the Itapocu River basin (IRB) located in Santa Catarina State, Brazil. The flood is assessed by conducting rainfall analysis and hydrological simulation and generating flood inundation maps. The income is evaluated using downloaded 2010 census data and a dasymetric approach. Flood and income information is combined to analyze flood‐impacted households by income level and flood return period. The results confirm the initial assumption that flood events in the IRB are more likely to affect the lowest‐income households rather than the highest‐income levels, thus, increasing the income inequality.

Abstract Flooding remains a major problem for the United States, causing numerous deaths and damaging countless properties. To reduce the impact of flooding on communities, the U.S. government established the Community Rating System (CRS) in 1990 to reduce flood damages by incentivizing communities to engage in flood risk management initiatives that surpass those required by the National Flood Insurance Program. In return, communities enjoy discounted flood insurance premiums. Despite the fact that the CRS raises concerns about the potential for unevenly distributed impacts across different income groups, no study has examined the equity implications of the CRS. This study thus investigates the possibility of unintended consequences of the CRS by answering the question: What is the effect of the CRS on poverty and income inequality? Understanding the impacts of the CRS on poverty and income inequality is useful in fully assessing the unintended consequences of the CRS. The study estimates four fixed‐effects regression models using a panel data set of neighborhood‐level observations from 1970 to 2010. The results indicate that median incomes are lower in CRS communities, but rise in floodplains. Also, the CRS attracts poor residents, but relocates them away from floodplains. Additionally, the CRS attracts top earners, including in floodplains. Finally, the CRS encourages income inequality, but discourages income inequality in floodplains. A better understanding of these unintended consequences of the CRS on poverty and income inequality can help to improve the design and performance of the CRS and, ultimately, increase community resilience to flood disasters.

Abstract Understanding the relationship between urban form and structure and spatial inequality of property flood risk has been a longstanding challenge in urban planning and emergency management. Here we explore eight urban form and structure features to explain variability in spatial inequality of property flood risk among 2567 US counties. Using datasets related to human mobility and facility distribution, we identify notable variation in spatial inequality of property flood risk, particularly in coastline and metropolitan counties. The results reveal variations in spatial inequality of property flood risk can be explained based on principal components of development density, economic activity, and centrality and segregation. The classification and regression tree model further demonstrates how these principal components interact and form pathways that explain spatial inequality of property flood risk. The findings underscore the critical role of urban planning in mitigating flood risk inequality, offering valuable insights for crafting integrated strategies as urbanization progresses.

Purpose This study investigates why Turkmen women’s traditional handicraft skills have declined and explains how the local, traditional craft skills accelerated the post-flood recovery of Turkmen women in the aftermath of the 2019 Northeast floods in Iran. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts a case study approach, employing reflective thematic analysis. Findings Post-disaster recovery spurred a shift from traditional to modern lifestyles through new housing designs, enhanced female literacy and greater economic participation. However, this transition devalued traditional crafts due to heightened household chores, material scarcity and reduced market demand. Nonetheless, women with craft skills played a pivotal role in household recovery by repairing damaged items and crafting dowries for their daughters, illustrating their contribution to social and economic resilience. Social implications These research findings shed light on the importance of traditional craft skills in enabling the female household member, in particular, to recover from disasters and contribute to the recovery of their households and communities. Originality/value The originality of this study lies in its focus on the specific context of Turkmen women’s traditional craft skills and their role in post-disaster recovery, particularly after the 2019 Northeast floods in Iran. While there is existing research on post-disaster recovery mechanisms, this study uniquely examines the under-researched impact of traditional craft skills on the recovery process, specifically for female household members.

Water quality remains a major issue in Canada. This paper reviews recent research on the impacts of urbanization, agriculture and forestry on water quality in Canada. Specific water quality issues such as mining, sewage treatment and waste treatment are not included in this paper. For each land use, a brief summary of the dominant processes linking runoff to water quality is provided and recent findings are summarized. With respect to urbanized watersheds, the relatively large proportion of impervious areas, lower vegetation cover and the presence of high-density drainage systems alter surface water routing and timing of peak flows. High concentrations of heavy metals are considered to be the most important water quality problem in urban runoff, but nutrients, pathogens, concentration of pharmaceuticals and water temperature also often contribute. In watersheds dominated by agricultural activities, overland flow is an important vector of pollutants, but subsurface flow such as macropore and tile-drain flo...

Phosphorus (P) mobilization in agricultural landscapes is regulated by both hydrologic (transport) and biogeochemical (supply) processes interacting within soils; however, the dominance of these controls can vary spatially and temporally. In this study, we analyzed a 5‐yr dataset of stormflow events across nine agricultural fields in the lower Great Lakes region of Ontario, Canada, to determine if edge‐of‐field surface runoff and tile drainage losses (total and dissolved reactive P) were limited by transport mechanisms or P supply. Field sites ranged from clay loam, silt loam, to sandy loam textures. Findings indicate that biogeochemical processes (P supply) were more important for tile drain P loading patterns (i.e., variable flow‐weighted mean concentrations ([ C f ]) across a range of flow regimes) relative to surface runoff, which trended toward a more chemostatic or transport‐limited response. At two sites with the same soil texture, higher tile [ C f ] and greater transport limitations were apparent at the site with higher soil available P (STP); however, STP did not significantly correlate with tile [ C f ] or P loading patterns across the nine sites. This may reflect that the fields were all within a narrow STP range and were not elevated in STP concentrations (Olsen‐P, ≤25 mg kg −1 ). For the study sites where STP was maintained at reasonable concentrations, hydrology was less of a driving factor for tile P loadings, and thus management strategies that limit P supply may be an effective way to reduce P losses from fields (e.g., timing of fertilizer application). Core Ideas We used metrics to evaluate controls on edge‐of‐field phosphorus losses. We examined a 5‐yr database of stormflow events (all seasons, including winter). Tile P runoff trended toward being more supply limited than surface runoff.

Hydrological responses in cold regions are often complex and variable (both spatially and temporally) due to the complex and multiple interactions between the hydrological processes at play. Thus, there is a need to better understand and represent cold region hydrological processes within hydrological models. In this study, a physicallybased hydrological model has been developed using the Cold Regions Hydrological Model (CRHM) platform for the L’Acadie River Catchment in southern Quebec (Canada). Almost 70 % of the catchment is occupied by agricultural fields, being representative of the intensive farming landscape of the southern St-Lawrence lowlands, while the rest is mostly forested. The physical processes including blowing snow, snow interception in canopies, sublimation and snowmelt were simulated over 35 years using the CRHM platform. Hydrologic response units (HRUs), the smallest simulation spatial unit within the catchment, were derived based on the combination of land use/cover and vegetation types. Over the simulation period, considerable spatial variability was detected between agricultural and forested sites. Snow accumulation and associated snow water equivalent (SWE) were found to be higher in forested sites than agricultural sites, which can be explained by blowing snow transport from agricultural sites to the forested sites where aerodynamic roughness is greater. Higher rates of blowing snow sublimation were detected over the agricultural sites compared to snow intercepted in the forest canopies. This can be explained by the fact that there is a great amount of blowing snow over the agricultural sites, and thus available suspended snow for sublimation, while over the forested sites the snow is more firmly retained by the canopies and thus there is less blowing snow and consequently less blowing snow sublimation. In addition, although snow cover duration shows variation over the simulation period, the snow generally lasts longer in forested fields than in agricultural fields. Our findings indicating more snow in forested fields than agricultural (open) fields are contrary to the usual notion that there is less snow accumulation on forest ground due to the high rates of canopy sublimation. However, this is true for the landscapes dominated by forests, while our study area is dominated by agricultural fields, so snow erosion of agricultural fields and snow deposition in forested fields seem to compensate canopy losses. Taken together, it is shown that land use exerts a critical control on snow distributions in this type of landscape, and perhaps on possible implications for future snow hydrology of the catchment.

In agricultural watersheds, human interventions such as channel straightening have disrupted the hydrologic connectivity between headwater streams and their riparian environment and have thus undermined the ecological services provided by these small streams. Knowledge of the hydrologic connectivity between these streams and their immediate environment (shallow riparian groundwater in the historical floodplain and on adjacent hillslopes) in human-impacted settings is critical for understanding and restoring these hydrological systems but remains largely incomplete. The objective of this research is to investigate the hydrogeomorphological conditions controlling hydrologic connectivity in the historical floodplain of straightened lowland streams. Detailed measurements on the spatiotemporal variability of groundwater-surface water interactions between straightened reaches, historical floodplain including abandoned meanders, and the adjacent hillslopes were obtained using a dense network of piezometers at two sites in the St. Lawrence Lowlands (Quebec, Canada). Results show that the complex mechanisms controlling hydrologic connectivity in naturally meandering lowland rivers also operate in highly disturbed straightened reaches, despite backfilling and agricultural practices. The pre-straightening hydrogeomorphological configuration of the floodplain partly explains the complex patterns of piezometric fluctuations observed at the sites. The apex of the abandoned meanders stands out as a focal area of hydrologic connectivity as water levels indicate pressure transfer that may reflect flows from the stream, the hillslopes, and the surrounding historical floodplain. These unique field observations suggest that abandoned meanders should be promoted as key elements of restoration strategies in lowland agricultural straightened headwater streams.

Climate change is already increasing the severity of extreme weather events such as with rainfall during hurricanes. But little research to date investigates if, and to what extent, there are social inequalities in climate change-attributed extreme weather event impacts. Here, we use climate change attribution science paired with hydrological flood models to estimate climate change-attributed flood depths and damages during Hurricane Harvey in Harris County, Texas. Using detailed land-parcel and census tract socio-economic data, we then describe the socio-spatial characteristics associated with these climate change-induced impacts. We show that 30 to 50% of the flooded properties would not have flooded without climate change. Climate change-attributed impacts were particularly felt in Latina/x/o neighborhoods, and especially so in Latina/x/o neighborhoods that were low-income and among those located outside of FEMA's 100-year floodplain. Our focus is thus on climate justice challenges that not only concern future climate change-induced risks, but are already affecting vulnerable populations disproportionately now.

Afin de mieux comprendre la distribution géographique des facilitateurs et des obstacles à la participation sociale des Québécois âgés, cette étude visait à documenter l’Indice du potentiel de participation sociale (IPPS) selon les zones métropolitaines, urbaines et rurales. Des analyses de données secondaires, dont l’Enquête transversale sur la santé des collectivités canadiennes, ont permis de développer et de cartographier un indice composé de facteurs environnementaux associés à la participation sociale, pondérés par une analyse factorielle. En zones métropolitaines, l’IPPS était supérieur au centre qu’en périphérie, compte tenu d’une concentration accrue d’aînés et des transports. Bien qu’atténuée, la configuration était similaire en zones urbaines. En zone rurale, un IPPS élevé était associé à une concentration d’aînés et un accès aux ressources accru, sans configuration spatiale. Pour favoriser la participation sociale, l’IPPS soutient que les transports et l’accès aux ressources doivent respectivement être améliorés en périphérie des métropoles et en zone rurale., AbstractTo better understand the geographic distribution of facilitators of, and barriers to, social participation among older Quebecers, this study aimed to document the Social Participation Potential Index (SPPI; Indice du potentiel de participation sociale) in metropolitan, urban and rural areas. Secondary data analyses, including the Canadian Community Health Survey, were used to develop and map a composite index of environmental factors associated with social participation, weighted by factor analysis. In metropolitan areas, the SPPI was higher in the center than in the periphery, due to an increased concentration of seniors and transportation. Although reduced, the pattern was similar in urban areas. In rural areas, a higher SPPI was associated with an increased concentration of older adults and access to resources, showing no spatial pattern. To promote social participation, the SPPI suggests that transportation and access to resources must be improved in the periphery of metropolitan areas and in rural areas, respectively.

Abstract The exposure of urban populations to flooding is highly heterogeneous, with the negative impacts of flooding experienced disproportionately by the poor. In developing countries experiencing rapid urbanization and population growth a key distinction in the urban landscape is between planned development and unplanned, informal development, which often occurs on marginal, flood‐prone land. Flood risk management in the context of informality is challenging, and may exacerbate existing social inequalities and entrench poverty. Here, we adapt an existing socio‐hydrological model of human‐flood interactions to account for a stratified urban society consisting of planned and informal settlements. In the first instance, we use the model to construct four system archetypes based on idealized scenarios of risk reduction and disaster recovery. We then perform a sensitivity analysis to examine the relative importance of the differential values of vulnerability, risk‐aversion, and flood awareness in determining the relationship between flood risk management and social inequality. The model results suggest that reducing the vulnerability of informal communities to flooding plays an important role in reducing social inequality and enabling sustainable economic growth, even when the exposure to the flood hazard remains high. Conversely, our model shows that increasing risk aversion may accelerate the decline of informal communities by suppressing economic growth. On this basis, we argue for urban flood risk management which is rooted in pro‐poor urban governance and planning agendas which recognize the legitimacy and permanence of informal communities in cities. , Key Points The distribution of flood risk in urban areas is uneven, with the negative impacts experienced disproportionately by the urban poor Our model shows that reducing the vulnerability of informal residents to flooding can reduce inequality, even when their exposure is high Based on the model results, we argue that urban flood risk management should be rooted in pro‐poor urban governance and planning agendas