Finding the Means: Investment and Adaptation in Vulnerable Communities

Facing multiple challenges from rising seas to repetitive flooding, a new issue paper from the Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law & Policy and The Water Institute of the Gulf examines the “tipping point” factors that may decide when coastal communities may find they can no longer continue.

If a community suffers repeat flooding and businesses and people decide not to rebuild, that impacts the tax base which in turn effects how much money can be spent on keeping up infrastructure for the remaining residents. At what point does this negative feedback become too large to sustain a community and what that “tipping point” can tell decision makers is the subject of “Finding the Means: Investment and Adaptation in Vulnerable Communities.”