Social vulnerability models are becoming increasingly important for hazard mitigation and recovery planning, but it remains unclear how well they explain disaster outcomes. Most studies using indicators and indexes employ them to either describe vulnerability patterns or compare newly devised measures to existing ones. The focus of this article is construct validation, in which we investigate the empirical validity of a range of models of social vulnerability using outcomes from Hurricane Sandy. Using spatial regression, relative measures of assistance applicants, affected renters, housing damage, and property loss were regressed on four social vulnerability models and their constituent pillars while controlling for flood exposure. The indexes best explained housing assistance applicants, whereas they poorly explained property loss. At the pillar level, themes related to access and functional needs, age, transportation, and housing were the most explanatory. Overall, social vulnerability models with weighted and profile configurations demonstrated higher construct validity than the prevailing social vulnerability indexes. The findings highlight the need to expand the number and breadth of empirical validation studies to better understand relationships among social vulnerability models and disaster outcomes.

Best management practices (BMPs) play an important role in improving impaired water quality from conventional row crop agriculture. In addition to reducing nutrient and sediment loads, BMPs such as fertilizer management, reduced tillage, and cover crops could alter the hydrology of agricultural systems and reduce surface water runoff. While attention is devoted to the water quality benefits of BMPs, the potential co‐benefits of flood loss reduction are often overlooked. This study quantifies the effects of selected commonly applied BMPs on expected flood loss to agricultural and urban areas in four Iowa watersheds. The analysis combines a watershed hydrologic model, hydraulic model outputs, and a loss estimation model to determine relationships between hydrologic changes from BMP implementations and annual economic flood loss. The results indicate a modest reduction in peak discharge and economic loss, although loss reduction is substantial when urban centers or other high‐value assets are located downstream in the watershed. Among the BMPs, wetlands, and cover crops reduce losses the most. The research demonstrates that watershed‐scale implementation of agricultural BMPs could provide benefits of flood loss reduction in addition to water quality improvements.

Distributed attenuation in flood management relies on small and low-impact runoff attenuating features variously distributed within a catchment. Distributed systems of reservoirs, natural flood management, and green infrastructure are practical examples of distributed attenuation. The effectiveness of attenuating features lies in their ability to work in concert, by reducing and slowing runoff in strategic parts of the catchment, and desynchronizing flows. The spatial distribution of attenuating features plays an essential role in the process. This article proposes a framework to place features in a hydrologic network, group them into spatially distributed systems, and analyze their flood attenuation effects. The framework is applied to study distributed systems of reservoirs in a rural watershed in Iowa, USA. The results show that distributed attenuation can be an effective alternative to a single centralized flood mitigation approach. The different flow peak attenuation of considered distributed systems suggest that the spatial distribution of features significantly influences flood magnitude at the catchment scale. The proposed framework can be applied to examine the effectiveness of distributed attenuation, and its viability as a widespread flood attenuation strategy in different landscapes and at multiple scales.

We would like to thank the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) colleagues for their commentary in what constitutes the first comment on an article published in the Annals in decades. W...

Urban development plays a major role in shaping flood exposure in rapidly urbanizing coastal regions. However, limited empirical evidence exists on how urban growth alters flood exposure over time. This study examines spatiotemporal patterns of urban development and flood exposure across four counties and 109 municipalities in southeastern Florida between 2011 and 2021 within FEMA-designated 100-year floodplains and Zone X areas. Using National Land Cover Database data and FEMA Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps, the analysis quantifies changes in high-, medium-, and low-intensity development within flood-prone areas. Results show sustained urban intensification throughout the region. Within the 100-year floodplain, high- and medium-intensity development increased by approximately 17% and 13%, respectively, while low-intensity development declined slightly. Similar trends occurred in Zone X areas, where high- and medium-intensity development increased by about 9% and 7%, respectively. Hotspot analysis identified significant spatial clusters of urban intensification within both high- and moderate-risk flood zones. However, even in municipalities where moderate flood risk areas are prevalent, development has often been more intense in high-risk floodplains. This study provides multi-scale GIS-based empirical evidence of how urban development patterns reshape flood exposure in coastal environments and demonstrates the value of spatiotemporal analysis for understanding evolving risk landscapes.