Craig E. Landry

Local governments play a critical role in flood hazard mitigation. Using community level panel data for all 100 North Carolina counties from 1999 to 2101, we es

To motivate flood insurance purchase and promote flood hazard awareness and mitigation, the Community Rating System (CRS) of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) credits floodplain management activities and awards flood insurance premium discounts. CRS, however, has been marked by a lack of active participation since its inception. The objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence related to community decisions involving incentive-based flood risk mitigation projects. A number of hypotheses offered by previous researchers regarding factors that motivate local hazard management initiatives are tested through an examination of patterns in CRS participation across all 100 North Carolina counties from 1991 to 2002. Specifically, the influence of flood experience, hydrological risk, local capacity, and socioeconomic factors on county hazard mitigation decisions are examined. Results indicate that flood history and physical risk factors increase likelihood of local hazard mitigation ad...

The city of New Orleans suffered extensive damage as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Rebuilding involves decisions on investment in protective measures. An exhaustive list of protective measures has been studied in planning documents, with public comment solicited in town hall meetings. In this study we employ a different approach to examine public sentiment toward the selection and investment in protective measures. Our study uses a stated preference choice experiment with a stratified sample to investigate individuals' willingness‐to‐pay for rebuilding New Orleans's man‐made storm defenses, restoring natural storm protection, and improving evacuation options through a modernized transportation system. We target residents of the New Orleans metropolitan area as well as other U.S. citizens. Our results indicate that individuals are willing to pay for increased storm protection for New Orleans, but values differ among residents of the New Orleans metropolitan area and other U.S. citizens.

This study employs the hedonic property price method to examine the effects of flood hazard on coastal property values. We utilize Geographic Information System data on National Flood Insurance Program flood zones and residential property sales from Carteret County, North Carolina. Our results indicate that location within a flood zone lowers property value. Price differentials for flood risk and the capitalized value of flood insurance premiums are roughly equivalent—both exhibiting a nonlinear relationship in flood probability. Our results support the conclusion that flood zone designation and insurance premiums convey risk information to potential buyers in the coastal housing market.