AUTHOR=Mohtat Niloofar , Khirfan Luna 

TITLE=Distributive Justice and Urban Form Adaptation to Flooding Risks: Spatial Analysis to Identify Toronto's Priority Neighborhoods

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Cities

VOLUME=Volume 4 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-cities/articles/10.3389/frsc.2022.919724

DOI=10.3389/frsc.2022.919724

ISSN=2624-9634

ABSTRACT=Empirical evidence points out that urban form adaptation to climate-induced flooding events – through interventions in land uses and town plans (i.e., street networks, building footprints, and urban blocks) – can exacerbate vulnerabilities and exposures, engendering risk inequalities and climate injustice. We develop a multicriteria model that draws on distributive justice's interconnections with the risk drivers of social vulnerabilities, flood hazard exposures, and the adaptive capacity of urban form (through land uses and town plans). The model assesses "who" is unequally at-risk to flooding events, hence, should be prioritized in adaptation; "where" are the high-risk priority areas located; and "how" can urban form adaptive interventions advance climate justice in the priority areas. We test the model in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where there are indications of increased rainfall events and disparities in social vulnerabilities. Our methodology starts with surveying Toronto-based flooding experts to assign weights to the risk drivers based on their importance. Using ArcGIS, we then mapped and overlayed the risk drivers' values in all the neighbourhoods across the city based on the experts' assigned weights. Accordingly, we identify four high-risk tower communities with old infrastructure and vulnerable populations as the priority neighbourhoods for adaptation interventions within the urban form. These four neighbourhoods are typical of inner-city tower blocks built in the 20th century across North America, Europe, and Asia based on modern architectural ideas. Considering the lifespan of these blocks, this study calls for future studies to investigate how these types of neighbourhoods can be adapted to climate change to advance climate justice.