The frequency of catastrophic flood events, amplified by climate change has increased
substantially in US Midwest (Neri et al., 2019; Reed et al., 2020). Flooding causes major
economic and social damage in the region. Because community vulnerabilities increase flood
impacts, vulnerability reduction is a crucial part of flood risk management. Many household
flood recovery projects often fail to address pre-existing community vulnerability, and in many
places the measurement of such reduction (if any) is difficult to identify.
The objective of the project is to determine how flood recovery measures facilitate the reduction
of unmet needs in a flood affected community. These unmet needs can be social, physical, health
or economic. The case study is based on two research questions: RQ1) What are the unmet social
needs of the flood exposed community? and RQ2) To what extent do flood mitigation measures
address unmet social needs? The study area is the City of Dubuque, which provided data
required for this project