Complexities and costs of floodplain buyout implementation

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Public acquisitions of floodplain properties, or “buyouts,” whereby governments purchase properties at risk of flooding from willing sellers and convert them to open space, are a widely used strategy for reducing risk. Since 1990, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has provided funding for more than 40,000 properties. Yet, little is known about the costs of buyout implementation, even though federal funding requirements mandate a complex set of activities undertaken by local, state, and federal government staff. This lack of understanding of buyout activity costs hinders development of evidence-based policy recommendations. To address this gap, we surveyed local and state government officials and consultants who have worked on floodplain buyout projects. Our survey results provide the first systematic, activity-level financial documentation of buyout projects in the U.S. Local and state government respondents reported median per-property activity costs of $14,428 and $8,161 (or 9.64% and 6.95% of property purchase costs), respectively. Respondents also reported significant variation in the activities undertaken as part of each project; community engagement strategies were particularly diverse, suggesting some households may not be adequately informed as a result of insufficient funding, time, or technical capacity for these activities. The varied and complex structures of buyout projects, as well as the attendant activity costs, pose barriers to implementation for local governments. Our results suggest both that: a) additional support and flexibility may be needed for critical activities that improve the experience of buyout participants; and b) reducing other activity costs may produce significant savings, which in turn could be used to improve the quality and expand the scope of buyout projects.