Does Resilience Yield Dividends? Co-Benefits of Investing in Increased Resilience in Cedar Rapids

Published

August 3, 2020

Author(s)

Juan F. Fung, Jennifer F. Helgeson, David H. Webb, Cheyney M. O'Fallon, Harvey Cutler

Abstract

Cedar Rapids, IA, offers a unique case study in planning for increased resilience. In 2008, Cedar Rapids experienced severe flooding. Rather than simply rebuilding, the city of Cedar Rapids began to invest in a resilient flood control system and in the revitalization of its Downtown neighborhood. This paper develops a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model for the regional economy of Cedar Rapids to quantify "resilience dividends": net co-benefits of investing in increased resilience. A resilience dividend includes benefits to the community even if another disaster does not occur. We build a CGE model of Cedar Rapids at two different time periods: one in 2007, before the flooding, and one in 2015, after the flooding and initial investment in resilience. We show that a positive economic shock to the economy results in larger co-benefits for key economic indicators in 2015 than in 2007. Our approach illustrates how co-benefits are distributed throughout the economy.

Citation

Economic Systems Research

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1080/09535314.2020.1798359

Local Download

Keywords

co-benefits, resilience, natural disasters, CGE

Citation

Fung, J. , Helgeson, J. , Webb, D. , O'Fallon, C. and Cutler, H. (2020), Does Resilience Yield Dividends? Co-Benefits of Investing in Increased Resilience in Cedar Rapids, Economic Systems Research, [online], https://doi.org/10.1080/09535314.2020.1798359 (Accessed April 23, 2024)