Proposed Solutions

Our solutions based of off hypotheses in our map overlays

Social Team

Currently the network of air quality monitors in Georgia is not dense enough to draw conclusions on the impact of air quality on specific communities. There are around 35 air monitoring sites in operation in 30 counties across the state that are used to monitor Georgia’s compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (Ambient Air Monitoring Program, n.d.).

Air quality can change within different communities in a city as large as Atlanta, and thus expose some populations to significantly different levels of pollutants than others (Apte, 2017). In California, a state policy was put in place which mandates community-level air monitoring. Los Angeles has partnered with air monitoring equipment manufacturer Aeroqual to create lower cost monitors in order to achieve this community-based air monitoring network (Williams, 2018). There are further innovation efforts in this field that will likely lead to the development of a relatively inexpensive air monitoring sensor.

Community level air monitoring in Atlanta would allow for prevention of asthma-related absences from work due to hospitalization or asthma attacks. Manual workers with asthma are particularly vulnerable to poor air quality days. Community level sensors can be used to alert vulnerable populations of specific areas within the city to avoid due to poor air quality, which can be used by firms to more efficiently choose work sites in order to avoid negative health impacts on vulnerable outdoor workers.

Economic Team

In Atlanta, the energy that powers our lights, heat our homes, and fuels our transportation comes almost exclusively from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. When we use less energy, we burn less fossil fuels, leading to lower emissions of carbon dioxide which is a key contributor to climate change. In our analysis, we saw how the heat island effect had the largest impact on the poorest communities in cities as it increases energy burden and decreases the available income of people living. To tackle this issue we have to find solutions to make people from lower socioeconomic status communities less vulnerable to heat island effect. The City of Baltimore already conducted a study with a similar goals and put forward new solutions that we could apply in terms of this problem in the Downtown Atlanta area.

This study found that investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy and alternative fuels save money long-term, catalyze local reinvestment and jobs, and protect human health and the environment. To ensure low-income residents are not left behind as technology advances, cities are working to lower the upfront cost of renewable energy and energy efficiency. The solutions from the 2019 Baltimore, Maryland Sustainability Report that are applicable to Atlanta include:

Increase energy efficiency across all sectors through education, efficiency retrofits, and building management systems
Increase the urban tree canopy and target areas with urban heat island impacts
Review current building codes and regulations, and adopt a residential green building code to increase energy efficiency in residential buildings.
Complete the conversion of streetlights to LEDs and pilot street lights with solar panels, temperature monitoring and sensors that can spot parking spaces and track air pollution. Ensure equitable geographical distribution.
Increase installation of cool roofs and green roofs and plant more shade trees in neighborhoods where concrete and other hard surfaces trap and collect heat, creating “urban heat islands”.
Promote and expand installation of energy-efficient combined heat and power and district energy systems which capture and reuse waste heat.
Set a goal to reduce petroleum consumption and increase the use of alternative fuel vehicles and equipment in the city government fleet.

Science Team

On March 18, 2019 the presidential administration announced plans to reform NFIP prices on flooding insurance. “FEMA’s current system calculates rates based on whether a home falls in a designated flood zone, and since higher-valued properties are more likely to hit the $250,000 insurance cap, lower-value homes are paying proportionately more than higher-value homes” (Insurance Information Institute, 2019). The reform system seeks to change that by assessing homes individually using parameters such as coastal surges, proximity to bodies of water, and hurricane rainfall rather than applying a formula to an entire zone. FEMA intends to implement this system October 1, 2021.

“In 2014 Florida enacted a law that encourages private companies to offer flood insurance. The legislation permits four types of flood coverage – a standard policy, which resembles National Flood Insurance Program coverage, and three enhanced policies. To encourage market growth, the law allows insurers to file their own rates until October 1, 2019. After that, rates will be subject to regulatory approval” (Insurance Information Institute, 2019).

Policies replicating this policy can be implemented in other states to make policies more affordable (Insurance Information Institute, 2019).

Communities can also develop grassroots flooding resilience by implementing the practices recommended by the EPA. These practices include green infrastructure, land conservation along river corridors, creating a comprehensive disaster recovery plan, updating flooding building codes, and implementing watershed-wide initiatives for storm water management (Environmental Protection Agency, 2014).

Engineering Team

CAP’s Downtown Master Plan proposes many technologies, policies, and efforts to improve Downtown. For the purpose of this report, the engineering team selected 26 solutions from the Master Plan that, if implemented, have the potential to mitigate Downtown’s vulnerabilities. These solutions were further analyzed to determine their impact on the three specific vulnerabilities focused on in the Analysis and Discussion portion of this report. See Table 4.4.1. for this list. The following solutions specified by the Master Plan have the greatest impact on the three vulnerabilities analyzed: re-design blah-zas, best block contest, decreasing parking, bioswales, and green infrastructure.

View Table 4.1.1. Master Plan Solutions and Vulnerabilities Addressed

Both flooding and the heat island effect can be mitigated by reducing impervious surface area and replacing these areas with greenery. Blah-zas, which are large, underutilized areas of impervious cover, are a key source of potential in mitigating both flood risks and the urban heat island effect. Other technologies such as bioswales and green infrastructure can be incorporated into these blah-zas to turn them into more environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing spaces. These technologies can just as easily be incorporated into other public and private spaces Downtown. The goal behind Best Block contests is to improve an individual block’s aesthetic through greenery, lighting, and landscape. These contests are a great way to indirectly encourage residents and corporations to plant greenery and increase permeable surfaces on their respective city blocks. Increased amounts of greenery would be a natural side effect of holding these contests.

Another key source of potential land for positive redevelopment in Downtown is the substantial amount of parking in the district. According to CAP’s Downtown Atlanta Master Plan, there are 147 acres worth of unused parking spaces even at peak times (2019). Decreasing the parking supply, districting/centralizing parking, and disincentivize parking are all strategies that can be implemented to help convert some of this wasted space Downtown into activated, environmentally beneficial space that would also help reduce flooding risk and the heat island effect. Immediately removing the unused spaces would contribute to this mitigation strategy, and centralizing and disincentivizing parking would both help create a system wherein the demand for parking is further reduced, allowing more spaces to be converted to other uses. Having a more centralized, efficient parking system in Downtown also helps reduce total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) which decreases emissions, congestion, and asthma triggers. Disincentivizing parking through increasing its costs or providing stipends to those who do not drive is also known to reduce VMT and emissions (Johnston, 2006). Similar to decreasing parking supply, improved curbside management will reduce Downtown’s VMT. According to Ali Vahabzadeh, founder of curbFlow, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. are both making an effort to better manage their curbsides to “improve metrics around congestion, safety, and sustainability with less vehicle miles traveled from circling looking for parking and drop-off space” (Descant, 2019).

Limited Repair Programs and Weatherization Programs both have the same goal: to improve dwellings of vulnerable populations. Limited repair programs focus on home repair for older adults or persons with disabilities for little or no cost (City of Atlanta, 2019). Weatherization programs focus on increasing energy efficiency of homes for low-income families (US Dept. of Energy, 2019). Efficient and maintained homes waste less energy than homes in disrepair. By helping families maintain and weatherize their homes, the energy burden for that family will decrease.

Table 4.1.1. Master Plan Solutions and Vulnerabilities Addressed