The Lecture in Planning Series (LiPS): Tammy Lewis

Climate Disaster in NYC: Assessing Four Post-Sandy Public Investment Strategies
Governments provide the leading and largest responses to climate-change-related coastal disasters. They decide whether to reinvest and rebuild, to what degree, and in what ways. Public post-disaster investment shapes the future of post-disaster locales. We problematize public investment in vulnerable ecological zones and connect states’ choices to long-term climate adaptation trajectories of urban coastal zones. States use four strategies: a “do nothing” approach, managed retreat, accommodation with limited structural mitigation, and massive coastal reconstruction. Through a comparative analysis of the New York City area after Superstorm Sandy, we outline the consequences of each strategy. States’ climate disaster responses can lead to “perverse adaptation,” which increases population densities in climate vulnerable locations. Post-disaster public investment for massive coastal reconstruction commits the state to further investments over time, requiring larger shares of total public resources. The conclusions raise questions regarding the use of public funds and the necessary conditions to make ecologically sound investments.

Tammy Lewis is a professor of environmental sociology at the City University of New York (Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center). Her research examines urban sustainability and alternatives to development. Her recent books include Green Gentrification: Urban Sustainability and the Struggle for Environmental Justice (Routledge, co-authored with Kenneth A. Gould), Ecuador’s Environmental Revolutions: Ecoimperialists, Ecodependents, and Ecoresisters (MIT Press), and Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology, 4th edition(Oxford University Press, co-edited with Gould). Her work has appeared in Conservation Biology, Environmental Sociology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Social Science Quarterly, Teaching Sociology, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, among others. She has been a Fulbright Scholar in Ecuador, grant recipient from the National Science Foundation, and has received the Distinguished Contribution Award from the American Sociological Association’s Environmental Sociology Section. At Brooklyn College she has received the Awards for Excellence in Mentoring and for Excellence in Research. She has chaired the Environmental Sociology section of the American Sociological Association and served as Trustee at her alma mater, Vassar College.

The Lecture in Planning Series (LiPS) is co-organized by the MSUP Program and second-year PhD students in Urban Planning: Light refreshments will be served. This event is open to Columbia University affiliates with a valid university ID. Any questions on the events can be directed Rossella Asja Lucrezia Ferro, rf2930@columbia.edu and Daniela Perleche Ugas, dp3167@columbia.edu.