Living with Water: Documenting Lived Experience and Social-Emotional Impacts of Chronic Flooding for Local Adaptation Planning Cities and the Environment

Coastal communities are threatened by extreme weather events in the form of storm surge and by frequent, chronic, or nuisance flooding. The physical damage of these events is vast and established in the literature; however, the social-emotional impacts are less well-documented. This pilot study sought to understand the impacts of tidal flooding on flood-prone communities in Queens, NY. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n=9) with civic science participants, we document flooding impacts, identify adaptations to flooding, and examine sources of information about flooding--including local networks and relationship to government. We found that participants are knowledgeable about and engaged with the processes, rhythms, and impacts of tidal flooding. Qualitative methods can be used to surface experiences of living with flooding and therefore inform planning processes. This work demonstrates the need to attune methods and data collection to better capture and understand lived experience, local ecological knowledge, and civic engagement--as these are crucial building blocks for strengthening social resilience. Finally, by rooting the research in civic science and a co-production approach, this study provides a starting point for building shared knowledge across different stakeholders to inform collaborative adaptation planning. Ultimately, we seek to better engage local knowledge -- including rich, qualitative data capturing lived experience -- into adaptation and resilience planning.

沿海社区正遭受两类威胁：一类是以风暴潮为表现形式的极端天气事件，另一类是频发、慢性或 nuisance型洪水（nuisance flooding）。此类事件造成的实体损害规模庞大，相关研究结论已在学术文献中得到广泛验证；但其社会情感层面的影响却鲜有详实的记录与研究。本试点研究旨在探究潮汐洪水（tidal flooding）对美国纽约皇后区易涝社区的影响。研究团队通过对公民科学（civic science）参与者开展的9次深度半结构化访谈（semi-structured interviews，n=9），系统记录了洪水造成的各类影响，梳理了针对洪水的适应举措，并探究了洪水相关信息的获取渠道——包括本地社交网络与政府的互动关系。研究发现，受访参与者对潮汐洪水的发生过程、节律特征及影响均有充分认知，并深度参与相关事务。质性研究方法可用于挖掘社区居民应对洪水的生活经历，进而为规划工作提供参考依据。本研究表明，有必要优化研究方法与数据收集策略，以更好地捕捉和理解居民的生活经历、本地生态知识与公民参与情况——这些均是强化社会韧性（social resilience）的核心基石。最后，本研究以公民科学与共同生产（co-production）范式为研究基础，为搭建不同利益相关方之间的共享知识体系提供了起点，可为协同式适应规划提供决策参考。最终，本研究旨在将本地知识——包括捕捉居民生活经历的丰富质性数据——更好地融入适应与韧性规划工作中。