Planning: CHIRRP: Rising Together: Empowering Flood Resilience for People with Disabilities

This research aims to advance our understanding of the disproportionate impact of cascading flood events on vulnerable populations, particularly individuals with disabilities, and to develop equitable, scalable, and science-driven solutions to enhance community resilience. The primary activities include engaging and expanding community partnerships, conducting stakeholder interviews, and organizing community listening tours to gather insights and identify specific needs and potential solutions. The project will assess the feasibility of existing and emerging engineering, policy, and community-driven flood resilience solutions, and map the disproportionate flood impacts on people with disabilities using community surveys and GIS mapping. By addressing these critical issues, the project aims to improve societal well-being, particularly for vulnerable populations, inform the design of inclusive and effective flood policies, and enhance public scientific literacy through extensive community outreach and engagement activities. Furthermore, the project will support the education and training of graduate and undergraduate students, preparing them to manage the complexity of flood planning and response. This project will advance the fundamental science of the complex interactions between natural, human, and built systems by integrating flood modeling, social science, disability research, system modeling, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The research plan is structured around four key objectives: (1) Engage community partners to understand the impacts of flooding on vulnerable populations through stakeholder interviews and community listening tours. (2) Assess the feasibility of existing and emerging flood resilience solutions through preliminary assessments and focus group meetings. (3) Conduct a community flood impact survey and use GIS mapping to investigate the spatial variability of flood risks, economic damage, and the distribution of vulnerable populations, specifically people with disabilities. (4) Collaborate with the community partnership network to co-produce science questions and research ideas. This approach will generate new knowledge on the differential impacts of floods on people with disabilities, the spatial and temporal patterns of flood impacts, and the design principles for effective engineering, policy, and community-driven flood resilience solutions adaptable to various community settings and demographic profiles. 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.