This week as Hurricane Florence bore down on the coast of North Carolina and then drifted south, multitudes of people were forced to evacuate from their homes, many near the coast and others in flood-prone inland areas. A large number of them ended up in Georgia, since it was expected to be spared the worse impacts of the storm. Today’s question from the GCP Roadmap discusses what we need to know for future displacements of people due to climate-change-related events, including floods and severe weather.
31. How will local, regional, and international displacement of people by climate change-related events affect Georgia?
Why this question is important: Weather events and their hydrological impacts, including those projected to become more frequent and/or intense with a changing climate, can drive significant displacement of people (IPCC 2012), as can longer-term trends like sea-level rise (Hauer et al. 2016). As the existing human habitat patterns change, nuances of population needs, vulnerabilities, demographics, and concentrations will impact state resources and infrastructure in ways not yet fully known or understood (Hauer 2017). On the forefront of these impacts will be local governments and service systems which, in turn, will look to regional, state, and federal governments for guidance and support. Some Georgia communities may see an increase in population, and others a decrease; those impacts will have different implications for regional and state resources. Understanding of the resource and infrastructure stressors is therefore critical for advance preparation at all levels of Georgia government and service provision.
