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Date of Award
Summer 2024
Project Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Abstract
Land conservation plays an important role in managing flood risk. It enhances community resilience and supports multiple ecosystem functions. This qualitative study investigates how local and regional land conservation strategies advance flood resilience in New Hampshire’s coastal watershed. Focusing on the institutional context, this thesis analyzes the effectiveness of local land conservation planning efforts, explores cross-scale interactions between local and regional planning, and identifies barriers and opportunities for flood-focused conservation projects. The data for this research were collected through semi-structured interviews with representatives of municipalities, public and private conservation organizations, regional planning commissions, partnership organizations, and landowners. The secondary data were gathered by reviewing local, regional, and state-level conservation-related plans and studies. The data analysis was guided by a novel institutional framework based on a modification of Ostrom’s social-ecological systems (SES) framework. The results of this research indicate that despite the substantial empirical evidence of environmental and economic benefits, flood resilience as a conservation objective is not widely prioritized. The most frequently mentioned barriers to land conservation as a flood resilience strategy were: lack of dedicated funding resources, low administrative capacity, high property prices, land fragmentation, and the perception of adverse effects on towns’ tax base. We found that opportunistic conservation plays a central role in the disconnect between plans and the actual protection of flood storage areas. In addition, the lack of coordination between land conservation and hazard mitigation planning contributes to the underutilization of conservation as a nature-based solution. Our findings point to the importance of collaboration across scales and jurisdictions in conservation planning. The research results offer valuable insights for municipal officials and land conservation organizations on how to increase the adoption of land conservation as an alternative to traditional structural flood control measures.
Recommended Citation
Zahorik, Michal, "Land Conservation Planning for Flood Resilience In New Hampshire’s Coastal Watershed: Recording of Michal Zahorik PhD dissertation defense presentation" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations. 2822.
https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2822
The PhD dissertation defense presentation slides are available here.