Does resilience yield dividends? Co-benefits of investing in increased resilience in Cedar Rapids

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.