UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The latest episode of the "Growing Impact" podcast features Lilliard Richardson, a professor of public policy and the department head of the School of Public Policy at Penn State. His research focuses on the analysis of health and safety policies.
On the podcast, Richardson talks about his seed grant project, titled “Flooding, Hurricane Harvey, and Environmental Justice.” Through this project, he and his team seek to better understand the social effects associated with flooding, such as whether racial and ethnic minorities, children, and those with low income suffer the most.
“Riverine flooding impacts the little communities that are perched right on top of those rivers, which made sense economically in the past,” Richardson said. “Today, it puts them at incredible risk, and many of those communities have tremendous environmental justice questions because it tends to be the poorest people living in many of those most vulnerable homes.”
He said there are multiple vulnerabilities when it comes to flooding and environmental justice, including the social vulnerability of individuals who are oftentimes in difficult situations; the vulnerability of the community, such as is the local hospital in a floodplain; and physical vulnerability of properties.
“What we're mostly interested in the policy aspects,” Richardson said. “What affects the communities? Has a community adopted certain policies to mitigate flooding? And how are individuals affected?”
Richardson and his team are working on creating a database to update and improve the available data related to flooding. Next steps may include working with partners, such as a regional watershed association or community leaders, so they can make use of this data to improve the lives impacted by flooding.
“We’re not necessarily the ones who will fix these inequities,” he said, “but the first step is finding out where the inequities and the vulnerabilities are.”
"Growing Impact" is a podcast by the Institutes of Energy and the Environment (IEE). It features Penn State researchers who have been awarded IEE seed grants and discusses their foundational work as they further their projects. The podcast is available on multiple platforms, including Apple, Google, Amazon and Spotify.