How can nuisance flooding affect Copenhagen residents’ Quality of Life?

Abstract

Cities are more at risk of experiencing flooding as climate change worsens, disrupting transport infrastructure and the social and economic networks that depend on it. Though flood impacts are typically studied by focusing on extreme events, ‘nuisance flooding’ — high-frequency, low-impact flood events that cumulatively disrupt the functioning of everyday activities — remains underexplored. We study how nuisance flooding affects everyday accessibility by defining a quality of life (QOL) index based on the accessibility of services and amenities, identifying flood-related changes in QOL, and mapping distributional effects of impacts. Focusing on Copenhagen (Denmark) and rainfall scenarios that cause nuisance flooding, our results suggest nuisance flooding 1) meaningfully lowers QOL, 2) lowers active mode-based QOL more, and 3) affects QOL the most in wealthier neighbourhoods. Our findings suggest nuisance flooding can pose a challenge to policymakers, and that the impacts of nuisance flooding on active transportation modes merit further attention.