Population in floodplains or close to sea level increased in US but declined in some counties-especially among Black residents.

ABSTRACT: Previous studies estimating US population vulnerable to climate change have assumed that population is uniformly distributed within the geographical unit of analysis, typically a census block. That assumption overstates vulnerable population in places where people have avoided the most hazardous areas. After using independent samples of housing location and building footprints to validate a revised approach, this letter estimates the US population close to sea level and in floodplains based on the assumption that population in a hazard zone is proportional to the fraction of buildings in the hazard zone, for the period 1990-2020. The building-based assumption reduces population estimates about 30%. Over the 30-year period, the US population below 1 m increased 14%-18% from 1.85 (±0.19) mil

SUBMITTER: Titus JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11908447 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature