Resist, accommodate, retreat. Of the climate adaptation categories, retreat – moving away from risk – is the most controversial but the most likely to create transformative change. This talk will review some of the challenges that make retreat difficult: sunk economic investments; connections to place; historic inequities; government incentives. We will discuss some of the strategies that have been employed by communities around the United States to overcome these challenges and to relocate homes or even towns away from hazards, and the ethical challenges involved. We will discuss whether these measures go far enough and what fairness and justice mean in a retreat context.

A.R. Siders is an assistant professor at the Disaster Research Center, Biden School of Public Policy and Administration, and Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware. As a lawyer and social scientist, her work focuses on the social justice implications of government incentive structures for climate adaptation. She studies managed retreat and adaptive capacity and is an advocate of audacious adaptation.

CCPO Innovation Research Park Building I 4111 Monarch Way, 3rd Floor Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA 23508 757-683-4940