On November 9, the Center for Environmental & Land Use Law proudly welcomes our Fall 2023 Distinguished Lecturer, Michael Gerrard. Professor Gerrard is the Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Pratice at Columbia University, and the faculty director of the groundbreaking Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. A widely respected expert on climate law and policy, Professor Gerrard's lecture will focus on his upcoming article, Urban Flooding: Legal Tools to Address a Growing Crisis, which will be featured in FSU Law's Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law. 

As Professor Gerrard will discuss, climate change is making extreme precipitation events more intense and frequent in many parts of the world. This has led to damaging and often life-threatening flooding in many cities. Urban drainage systems were designed to accommodate rainfall patterns that no longer exist. A host of actions are required to help cities cope with the flooding that is now happening and that will become more severe in the decades to come: improved drainage systems; more "green infrastructure" to allow stormwater to infiltrate the soil; systems to store water temporarily; barriers to hold back water; elevating and otherwise redesigning buildings so that critical elements are above flood levels; and relocation of some uses away from vulnerable areas. His lecture will explore the legal issues that arise with each of these types of actions, discuss how they can be financed, and make recommendations for legal reforms. It also will consider the difficult task of setting priorities and making tradeoffs among potential actions.

Professor Gerrard's lecture will be held November 9 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the FSU Law Rotunda, with a reception to follow. For those who cannot attend in person, it will be livestreamed here.