A Review of Funding Mechanisms for US Floodplain Buyouts

Kelsey Peterson, Emily Apadula, David Salvesen, Miyuki Hino, Rebecca Kihslinger and Todd K. BenDor
Additional contact information
Kelsey Peterson: Institute for the Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box #3140, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Emily Apadula: Institute for the Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box #3140, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
David Salvesen: Institute for the Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box #3140, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Miyuki Hino: Department of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box #3140, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Rebecca Kihslinger: The Environmental Law Institute, 1730 M St. NW #700, Washington, DC 20036, USA
Todd K. BenDor: Institute for the Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box #3140, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 23, 1-20

Abstract: Increases in extreme weather events have caused extensive flooding across the United States. In response, federal, state, and local governments have broadened their flood mitigation strategies to include acquisition and demolition of flood-damaged homes (“buyouts”). Little work has documented or analyzed the range of strategies for funding buyouts. Federal programs provide the bulk of funding, but these programs are often slow. Also, state and local governments struggle to meet cost-match requirements. We present and analyze a nationwide census of buyout funding programs (n = 34), which draw on five primary funding mechanisms. We find that state and local governments are using a range of traditional and innovative financial mechanisms, including municipal/green bonds, revolving loan funds, local option sales taxes, and stormwater utility fees, as viable tools for funding buyouts. These tools may promote more autonomy from federal government mitigation programs, and ultimately, faster buyout processes.

Keywords: floodplain buyouts; environmental finance; hazard mitigation; climate adaptation; floodplain management; municipal finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/23/10112/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/23/10112/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:23:p:10112-:d:456010

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().