Research and News

Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science, found that the unpleasant surprise of the new insurance costs often causes political pressure that can ultimately lead to map revisions that underestimate flood exposure.

Peter Wilcoxen, professor of public administration and international affairs, will serve as the inaugural Ajello Professor in Energy and Environmental Policy. The professorship was created from a $250,000 gift from Maxwell School alumnus James Ajello ’76 M.P.A.

"One problem is the [flood] maps are based on historical data, they're static maps," says Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science. "They don't take into account future development scenarios and future weather-related scenarios having to do with climate change."

"Officials are concerned about the financial burden on individual property owners, but also worry about decreased property values and increased restrictions on development," Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science.

Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science, talks about why Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps don’t tell the true story of where floods are happening now and in the future.

"Here’s the big lesson from Hurricane Harvey: The U.S. government’s flood zone designation, and the maps based on it, may not predict future flood risks accurately, particularly as climate change alters sea levels and weather patterns," writes Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science. 

“This is a tremendously costly endeavor, and that’s why we haven’t done it already,” says Pete Wilcoxen, director of the Center for Environmental Policy and Administration, about revising the EPA's model for evaluating the broad economic costs and benefits of air pollution regulations.

"In response to the climate crisis we face, our leaders must not continue to merely say 'no' to climate policies proposed by others, or to hope, as we have for decades, for an unforeseeable technological breakthrough that will render fossil fuels uneconomical," write eleven scientists and professors from SUNY ESF and Syracuse University.