06-29-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

What America’s half-trillion dollar flooding problem needs

Innovative solutions can’t come quickly enough.

[Photo: Getty Images]

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Flooded basements, mold growth, and rotting wood are all symptoms of the alarming uptick in flood damage facing property owners nationwide. Its costs, which can reach nearly a staggering half a trillion in the U.S. each year, are surging as the impact of climate change worsens. And that impact is becoming unpredictable, with 29% of flood claims coming from outside what are typically considered “high risk areas.”

The search for an answer to this crisis has been focused disproportionately on insurance premiums and incentives, along with state-backed schemes to ensure reinsurance companies can be counted on. And while important, that approach will never work on its own; one need only look at population growth in places like Florida to see why. An effective solution to the flooding challenge must focus on innovation, and that means looking not only at where we build and its related insurance consequences, but how we build.

URBAN DESIGN FOR VULNERABLE CITIES

Cities are our vital economic centers, but they’re also traditionally the areas hardest hit by flooding, which paralyzes commerce and runs up damage. Cities have extensive impervious land cover—such as parking lots, roads, and rooftops—that........

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