Relationships Between Removal of Infrastructure Subsidies and Coastal Development: The Impact of the U.S. Coastal Barrier Resources Act

该研究项目将确定撤销联邦基础设施补贴是否是阻碍环境脆弱或风险易发地区城市发展的有效方法。该项目将使用1982年美国海岸屏障资源法案（CBRA）作为一种“自然实验”，研究城市发展的速度和类型如何以及为什么会因沿海地区是否受到该法案的影响而有所不同。该法案取消了沿东海岸和墨西哥湾指定沿海地区基础设施的联邦资金，但没有禁止开发。该项目将通过确定参与城市发展进程的不同组织的相互关联和相互冲突的动机，提高对影响沿海地区发展和再开发的因素的一般认识。它将讨论关于未来法律框架的理论辩论，这些法律框架可以反映CBRA，以保护湿地、洪泛平原、濒危物种栖息地和其他因环境条件变化而面临严重未来风险的地区。项目结果将通过专业工具包与决策者和沿海管理者分享，该工具包将解释结果并为沿海发展和基础设施决策提供最佳实践建议。调查结果还将被转化为教材，供北卡罗来纳州和美国的高中使用。城市发展依赖于许多因素，包括联邦政府对基础设施发展的援助，无论是通过道路、公用事业还是其他重大投资。尽管CBRA试图减少对那些极易受到自然灾害影响的地区的开发激励，例如易受飓风或风暴潮影响的地区，但这些地区仍然发生了开发。调查人员将把重点放在CBRA造成的关键紧张关系上，因为增加的基础设施成本可能会被地方许可和基础设施资金以及该法案所促进的隔离费用所抵消。他们将设法确定在公共基础设施、救灾和洪水保险补贴被取消的沿海地区，发展的程度。他们将研究这些发展速度与持续补贴的沿海地区相比如何，他们将确定是否存在经济或人口增长阈值，在该阈值下，联邦资金的撤回对发展速度没有影响，他们将评估当地土地使用、基础设施和许可决策如何与联邦补贴的限制相互作用，并可能抵消这些限制。调查人员将评估受CBRA影响的单位以及邻近的未受影响的地区的住宅开发的比率、类型和强度，这些地区遍布阿拉巴马州、特拉华州、佛罗里达州、北卡罗来纳州和南卡罗来纳州。他们将使用基于配对分析的准实验框架来理解各种因素的影响。然后，重点案例研究将探讨为什么一些受CBRA影响的单位得到了发展，而另一些则没有。

This research project will determine whether the withdrawal of federal infrastructure subsidies is an effective way to discourage urban development in environmentally fragile or risk-prone areas. The project will use the 1982 U.S. Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) as a kind of "natural experiment" to examine how and why rates and type of urban development have differed depending on whether the coastal areas were affected by the act, which eliminated federal funding for infrastructure in designated coastal areas along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico without prohibiting development. The project will enhance general knowledge about the factors influencing development and redevelopment of coastal areas by identifying the interrelated and conflicting motivations of different organizations involved in the urban development process. It will address theoretical debates about future legal frameworks that could mirror the CBRA to protect wetlands, floodplains, endangered species habitat, and other areas experiencing severe future risk from changing environmental conditions. Project findings will be shared with policy makers and coastal managers through a professional toolkit that will explain results and suggest best practices for coastal development and infrastructure decisions. Findings also will be transformed into educational materials for use in high schools across North Carolina and the U.S. Urban development relies on numerous factors, including federal assistance with infrastructure development, whether through roads, utilities, or other major investments. Although the CBRA attempted to reduce incentives for development in areas that were extremely vulnerable to natural hazards, such as areas subject to hurricanes or storm surges development still has occurred in these areas. The investigators will focus on the key tension created by the CBRA, as increased infrastructure costs may be offset by local permitting and infrastructure funding as well as premiums placed on seclusion promoted by the act. They will seek to ascertain to what extent development has occurred in coastal areas where public infrastructure, disaster relief, and flood insurance subsidies have been withdrawn. They will examine how these development rates compare to coastal areas with continued subsidies, and they will identify whether there are economic or population growth thresholds for which withdrawal of federal funding has no effect on development rates, and they will assess how local land-use, infrastructure, and permitting decisions interact with and possibly offset restrictions on federal subsidies. The investigators will evaluate the rates, types, and intensities of residential development in units affected by the CBRA and adjoining, non-affected areas throughout Alabama, Delaware, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. They will use a quasi-experimental framework based on a matched pair analysis to understand the impacts of various factors. Focused case studies will then explore why some units affected by the CBRA have developed and others have not.