Margaret A. Walls

Margaret A. Walls
Margaret A. Walls
Senior Fellow; Director, Climate Risks and Resilience Program
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Margaret Walls is a senior fellow and director of the Climate Risks and Resilience Program, as well as cohost of RFF’s podcast,
Resources Radio
Walls’s research focuses on the impacts of extreme weather, floods, hurricanes, and wildfires on people and communities and the design of programs and policies to equitably enhance resilience to such events. She has written about the benefits of natural infrastructure, such as coastal wetlands and riparian buffers, in reducing flood damages and the evaluation of conservation investment decisions in floodplains and coastal zones. She has also evaluated the role of information and disclosure in driving household location decisions in the context of both wildfire and flood risks. In current research, she is focusing on environmental justice challenges associated with wastewater systems in rural communities facing sea level rise and working in partnership with underserved communities to find ways to invest in natural infrastructure to address coastal flooding. She has also conducted an evaluation of the federal government’s implementation of the Justice40 directive, the movement to ensure that 40 percent of the benefits of federal climate and energy investments flow to disadvantaged communities. Walls organized and hosted the six-part environmental justice webinar series at RFF,
Exposure
, in 2021-2022.
Walls has published widely in peer-reviewed journals on a range of natural resource and environmental issues and is the author of 36 book chapters and published reports. She is a Features Coeditor of the
Review of Environmental Economics and Policy
, a flagship journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. She is a member of the advisory board of
Cityscape
and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Policy Development and Research, a member of the advisory board for the Washington DC Environmental Justice and Racial Equity (EJRE) Assessment Tool, and a former board member of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
Education
PhD in economics, University of California at Santa Barbara, 1988
BS in agricultural economics, University of Kentucky, 1981
Topics
Adaptation and Resilience
Insurance and Disaster Aid
Hurricanes and Flooding
Ecosystems and Nature-Based Solutions
Public and Private Lands
Benefit-Cost Analysis
Policy Design and Evaluation
Risk Analysis and Uncertainty
Valuation
Environmental Justice
Climate Risks and Resilience
Communities in the Energy Transition
Land Use, Forestry, and Agriculture
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Conserving Land and Managing Wildfire Risks, with Jade Stevens
Jade Stevens introduces listeners to 40 Acre Conservation League, where she serves as executive director and board president, and how the organization’s mission of land conservation can expand access to outdoor recreation.
Recreation and Resilience: When Parks Do Double Duty
This report describes the double-duty performed by stormwater parks in three cities in the United States: Atlanta, Houston, and Virginia Beach.
Estimating the Impacts of Recurrent and Expanding Coastal Flooding on Septic Systems in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay
This article analyzes how sea-level rise and coastal flooding increase the vulnerability of septic systems and amplify environmental risk in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay region.
Climate-Related Risks in the Financial Sector, with Kevin Stiroh
Kevin Stiroh discusses how the Federal Reserve and the financial sector address climate risk.
Recreation and Resilience: When Parks Do Double Duty
This report describes the double-duty performed by stormwater parks in three cities in the United States: Atlanta, Houston, and Virginia Beach.
Estimating the Impacts of Recurrent and Expanding Coastal Flooding on Septic Systems in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay
This article analyzes how sea-level rise and coastal flooding increase the vulnerability of septic systems and amplify environmental risk in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay region.
Sea Level Rise and Coastal Infrastructure: The Tradeoff Between Protection and Exposure
This paper examines how communities balance adaptation infrastructure investments to address current problems without inducing future development in high-risk areas, focusing on public sewer expansion to address exposure of private septic systems to sea l
Adapting Wastewater Infrastructure to Sea Level Rise: A Review of Coastal State Policies for Septic Systems
Sea level rise and saltwater intrusion pose a challenge to the functioning of on-site wastewater systems. This report reviews how 19 Atlantic and Gulf Coast states regulate and fund these systems, including policies, future planning, and financial support
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Shifting Ground: Changes in Public Land Policies
The second event in RFF’s If/Then series, which presents insights about substantive developments in environmental and energy policy.
Environmental Justice in Regulatory Decisionmaking
Environmental Justice in Regulatory Decisionmaking
Environmental Justice: Taking Stock of Justice40
A virtual event exploring the implementation of Justice40, the US federal government’s largest environmental justice initiative
Sparking Solutions: Reducing Risk at the Wildland-Urban Interface
On Wednesday, October 12, Resources for the Future (RFF) hosted the second RFF Live event in the “Sparking Solutions” webinar series, where we discussed the benefits and challenges of addressing the WUI problem.
View More Events
Conserving Land and Managing Wildfire Risks, with Jade Stevens
Jade Stevens introduces listeners to 40 Acre Conservation League, where she serves as executive director and board president, and how the organization’s mission of land conservation can expand access to outdoor recreation.
Climate-Related Risks in the Financial Sector, with Kevin Stiroh
Kevin Stiroh discusses how the Federal Reserve and the financial sector address climate risk.
Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance, with Dan Egan
Dan Egan sheds light on the wacky history of phosphorus and its role in agriculture and algal blooms, as water pollution persists in the Great Lakes.
Sea Level Rise and Sunny Day Flooding, with Miyuki Hino
Miyuki Hino details the complexities of researching coastal flooding and the importance of context-dependent data collection and community engagement to capture accurate data and help communities combat changing tides.
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Inside Climate News: “Trump Administration’s Threats to Shrink or Eliminate National Monuments Could Endanger Drinking Water for Millions”
RFF Senior Fellow Margaret Walls comments on the importance of national monuments for clean water resources.
Bloomberg: “Older Homes for Sale in California Now Come With Wildfire Warnings”
RFF Senior Fellow Margaret Walls discusses some of her research in the context of new policy decisions in California.
“Carbon Pulse: Spark Notes”
A new paper on ways to reduce wildfire exposure in the wildland-urban interface is mentioned in Carbon Pulse‘s daily newsletter.
Mountain West News Bureau: “Job Growth Fastest in the West Where Wildfire Risk is the Highest”
Emily Joiner is quoted in this piece about a new RFF report on the threat wildfire poses to western US businesses.
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