Credit: UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
Freeways tore through countless communities of color across the U.S. in the mid-20th century. The impacts of the U.S. Interstate Highway era — from immediate displacement to long-term health and economic impacts — are well documented.
As climate change intensifies extreme weather events, less is known about how freeways themselves may exacerbate environmental hazards. A new UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies project is examining how highway expansions can worsen flooding, focusing on communities in California and Alabama.
Led by UCLA’s Regan Patterson, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, the multidisciplinary team is using spatial analysis and flood modeling to assess changes in flooding dynamics, community loss, and transportation network disruptions associated with highway expansion projects.
To ground these projections in community members’ lived experiences, Patterson and graduate student researcher Anika Tasnia joined colleagues from Texas Southern University’s Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice for a site visit to Shiloh, a rural and historically Black community near Elba, Alabama.