Unequal Retreats: How Racial Segregation Shapes Climate Adaptation

Recent research on climate adaptation points to the need to take flood control seriously as a state-led process that organizes and responds to the racial and environmental spaces of cities. The present study advances that agenda by focusing on the federally funded retreat of homes and residents from flood-prone urban neighborhoods. While officially organized by rational engineering and technocratic calculations, its implementation cannot escape the racialized landscapes of U.S. cities. To illustrate, we review how a century of unequal environmental planning and housing policy has forged today’s racialized urban landscapes. Then, we turn to the federal government’s entrance into those landscapes via its policy of managed retreat that purchases flood-prone homes and returns them to nature. Here we draw on nationwide data to reveal the policy’s increasing urban orientation. We then present evidence from Houston to reveal how the racial composition and turnover of local neighborhoods influence program implementation and subsequent relocation. While not every city may experience the same racialized patterns as Houston, they will exhibit some patterns due to the powerful social and environmental force that race has long exerted in U.S. cities. Failing to account for that force will compromise efforts to adapt effectively to climate change.