Doctoral Dissertation Research: Global Financial Market Practices in Urban Resilience Planning

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This project investigates how changing financial market practices associated with environmental variability risks impact cities and those who live in them. The research will make significant contributions to an understanding of the financial drivers that shape how cities respond to a changing environment. The work will enhance knowledge of the impact of unaffordable flood insurance, property devaluation, and governmental management in cities impacted by these increased environmental risks. Understanding the impact of these changing practices on urban life is critical for creating equitable and effective urban governance. Findings from this project will be disseminated in open-access articles for public use and the project will support the training of doctoral student. This research uses an integration of expert interviews, ethnographic observation, and documentary analysis to examine the role of changing financial market practices in urban resilience planning. The research will be conducted in coastal cities that are already experiencing the effects of a changing environment and that have put into place resilience bonds. Specific research questions that the investigators will answer include: (1) What kind of problem(s) does environmental variability pose to key financial market actors, and how do they address these problems in their practices?; (2) How do these practices inform governmental action on resilience?; and (3) How might market-driven action impact residents’ ability to make financial claims in the future? This project offers a novel perspective on two increasingly pervasive contemporary problems that face societies around the world: how to finance urban resilience, and how changing risk rating practices create urban inequalities and uneven social and environmental outcomes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.