When Water Rewrites the Rules

Water is increasingly behaving in ways that defy our plans. How should cities prepare when the risks keep changing? Roni Deitz (Arcadis) joins Richard K. Green (USC Lusk Center for Real Estate) to explore how water is reshaping real estate, infrastructure, and long-term investment. Starting with recent storms like Hurricane Helene and their devastating impacts, the conversation expands to examine a new reality: the baseline assumptions guiding water and development may no longer hold. Highlights include: Why mapped flood risk often misses the reality of risk over time The limits of engineering, and why aligned land use decisions are necessary for resilience What “one water” thinking looks like in practice, from stormwater to wastewater How cities like New York are aligning policy, finance, and infrastructure in flood-prone areas How integrating policy and practice can make cities more stable and investible More: https://lusk.usc.edu/perspectives