New Urbanism and the Hazard Transect Overlay District: Improving the Integration of Disaster Resilience and Design in Coastal Areas

Abstract

Growing attention has been paid to disaster resilience in the United States by government officials, academics, and design professionals. At the same time, disaster losses continue to rise at a rapid rate, due to the combined effects of long-standing settlement patterns and growth in areas prone to natural hazards and an increase in the frequency and magnitude of disastrous weather events. This article explores how New Urbanism, an increasingly ubiquitous approach to urban design, and its associated transect can be modified for better disaster resilience through the proposed creation of Hazard Transect Overlay Districts (H-Transect) that remain true to New Urbanism and disaster resilience. Two types of HTransect Overlay Districts—protect/accommodate and managed retreat/avoidance—are created and visually superimposed on the New Urbanist transect in the coastal zone, spanning riverine, tidal, and shoreline environments. Our results suggest that the proposed H-Transect Overlay District can be used in New Urbanist communities to advance resilience by actively involving land use planners, recognizing the need to further test and calibrate the concept over time.