Managed coastal retreatAre Buyouts a Viable Tool for Climate Adaptation?
Sea level rise, and the resulting storm surges and floods, have made managed coastal retreat – the purposeful movement of people, buildings, and other infrastructure away from the coast – an option which more and more communities are considering. The need for adaptive solutions to the growing coastal challenges is clear, but questions remain as to where buyouts by the government of vacated property can and should fit in.
After a disastrous flash flood event inundated Allegany County, Maryland in June of 2014, the owner of the Garden City Mobile Home Park put in a request: add his land to the state buyout list. Now, some seven years later, the county is purchasing seven acres of the 11-acre property and relocating 28 tenants out of the flood plain.
Similar buyout programs are taking place across the country as climate change increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. By the end of the century, 13 million Americans could be displaced by sea level rise alone. But while the need for adaptive solutions is clear, questions remain as to where buyouts can and should fit in.
From June 22 to 25, stakeholders from around the world grappled with the role of buyout programs during the Columbia Climate School’s conference, “At What Point Managed Retreat? Resilience, Relocation, and Climate Justice.” Across panel discussions, participants agreed that if buyouts are to function as an equitable and effective tool for managed retreat, then they have a ways to go — especially to meet the scale of climate-driven migration expected in the coming decades.
How Buyouts Work
On the surface, buyout programs seem like a straightforward proposition. A resident whose home is increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change agrees to sell their property to their local government and relocate. Within that proposition, however, is a web of complex decision-making for both property owners and program practitioners.
“It’s not just buying a particular piece of property on a particular parcel of land,” said Matthew Fuchs, who works in the Flood-Prepared Communities Initiative at the Pew Charitable Trusts. “You’re talking about all the things that make up a community — social networks, economic networks, transportation, supply chains.”
Administering a buyout program requires intricate coordination across every level of government. Local officials work with members of the community to develop and submit a grant application to their state hazard mitigation officer. States review these applications and then pass them on for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to approve.
FEMA is the federal government’s primary vehicle for supporting buyouts. The agency doesn’t have a pot of money specifically reserved for local property acquisition but rather provides states with grant funding from two buckets: pre-disaster funding and post-disaster funding. Once FEMA approves an application, these federal funds can be used to finance up to 75 percent of a project. The other
