The MACH-supported study “Developing more useful equity measurements for flood-risk management” was published in Nature Sustainability this April. It is the product of four MACH team members: Adam Pollack, Casey Helgeson, Carolyn Kousky, and Klaus Keller. The study results may “help decision-makers around the world achieve more equitable outcomes from environmental public policy”.
Adam Pollack, first author on the study and postdoctoral research associate at Dartmouth College, provides the following plain language summary of the study: “Decision-makers around the world are working to establish equity as a foundation of public policy. This is increasingly true in the case of flood-risk management. Equity measurements are needed to help track progress toward stating and meeting equity goals. However, a major challenge in measuring equity is that when people hold different values about what equity means, they may reach different conclusions about which outcomes are equitable. This study identifies properties of useful equity measurements based on an analysis about how equity is, and can be, measured in flood-risk settings. The results are synthesized in an accessible taxonomy that can help analysts and practitioners develop more useful equity measurements for flood-risk management, and potentially, in other environmental management settings.”
Read the Full Press Release Article published by Dartmouth College.
Read the Study in Nature Sustainability here.