Participatory and Spatial Analyses of Environmental Justice Communities’ Concerns about a Proposed Storm Surge and Flood Protection Seawall

Judith Taylor, Norman S. Levine, Ernest Muhammad, Dwayne E. Porter, Annette M. Watson and Paul A. Sandifer ()
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Judith Taylor: Masters in Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424, USA
Norman S. Levine: Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, Lowcountry Hazards Center, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424, USA
Ernest Muhammad: Lowcountry Alliance for Model Communities, North Charleston, SC 29405, USA
Dwayne E. Porter: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
Annette M. Watson: Department of Political Science, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424, USA
Paul A. Sandifer: Center for Coastal Environmental and Human Health, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 18, 1-29

Abstract: In response to increasing threats from sea-level rise and storm surge, the City of Charleston, South Carolina, and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) propose constructing a seawall around the Charleston peninsula. The proposed seawall will terminate close to lower wealth, predominantly minority communities. These communities are identified as environmental justice (EJ) communities due to their history of inequitable burdens of industrial and urban pollution and proximity to highways and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated Superfund sites. The present study documents community concerns and opinions related to the proposed seawall, existing flooding problems, and other issues. The project was guided by knowledge co-production and participant-observation approaches and included interviews with community members, collection of locality-specific data, GIS mapping to visualize key issues, development of an ArcGIS Story Map, and participation in public meetings. Community concerns are reported in the voices of community members and fell into eight major themes: community connections, drainage, impacts of road infrastructure, displacement, increasing vulnerability, sense of exclusion and isolation, mistrust of government, and civic engagement. Community members were significantly engaged in the study and are the owners of the results. As one of the first US East Coast cities pursuing major structural adaptation for flooding, Charleston is likely to become a model for other cities considering waterfront protection measures. We demonstrate the importance of meaningful engagement to ensure that climate adaptation will benefit all, including marginalized communities, and have as few unintended negative consequences as possible. Bringing more people to the table and creating vibrant, long-term partnerships between academic institutions and community-based organizations that include robust links to governmental organizations should be among the first steps in building inclusive, equitable, and climate resilient cities.

Keywords: environmental justice; Charleston; flooding; seawall; interviews; community; participatory; spatial analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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