Whether they are natural, manmade or a combination of the two, infrastructure projects for managing water resources are not always distributed evenly across time, space, or populations. Infrastructure managers bear a responsibility for ensuring all members of a community are being fairly served by infrastructure choices. To support sustainable nature-based solutions, these managers need a clear and concise set of guidelines for incorporating equity into project decision making.
Objective
Our goal is to develop a set of operational actions that infrastructure managers can use to meaningfully incorporate social equity into water resources decisions.
Approach
To investigate the latest science and practices for incorporating social equity factors into infrastructure decisions, we will interview infrastructure professionals and scholars working in this area and examine peer-reviewed literature and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers studies where equity concerns played a prominent role in decision making.
Deliverables
Based on our findings, we will create a framework that infrastructure mangers can use for assessing social equity in project planning. This decision framework will be published in an open access peer-reviewed journal and communicated widely through channels such as webinars and trade magazines.
