{"id":7645,"date":"2026-08-07T13:48:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T17:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/?page_id=7645"},"modified":"2026-08-07T14:58:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T18:58:49","slug":"he-innsure","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/he-innsure\/","title":{"rendered":"Counting What the Dollars Miss: Measuring Who Doesn&#8217;t Recover from a Flood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced has-title post-5244 profile type-profile status-publish hentry\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/profile\/jiahang-he\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-advanced\">\n\t\t\t<img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2023\/09\/2023-Jiahang-He-update2025-e1748360218758-150x150.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Jiahang He headshot\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2023\/09\/2023-Jiahang-He-update2025-e1748360218758-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2023\/09\/2023-Jiahang-He-update2025-e1748360218758-631x636.jpeg 631w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2023\/09\/2023-Jiahang-He-update2025-e1748360218758-1016x1024.jpeg 1016w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2023\/09\/2023-Jiahang-He-update2025-e1748360218758-768x774.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2023\/09\/2023-Jiahang-He-update2025-e1748360218758-100x100.jpeg 100w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2023\/09\/2023-Jiahang-He-update2025-e1748360218758.jpeg 1276w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>\t\t<\/figure>\n\n\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">Jiahang He<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-advanced\">Earth &#038; Environment<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\n<p><strong>Project Partner:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/innsure.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">InnSure<\/a>, Summer 2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Project Summary: <\/strong>When a flood hits, we determine the damage in dollars very well. We are far worse at determining who cannot recover. Standard flood models estimate the cost to repair buildings. They miss the renter displaced for weeks, the hourly worker who loses wages instead of property, and the family that never returns. These hidden losses fall hardest on the households least able to absorb them.<\/p>\n<p>Jiahang partnered with InnSure, which is building a flood-risk tool for Massachusetts towns, to solve a problem its own design documents had named but left unmeasured. He designed a new method to measure a flood\u2019s social burden, meaning the yearly dollar cost of its toll on a community\u2019s ability to recover. His method captures multiple kinds of losses, not only repair and replacement costs but also health losses and displacement costs, among other factors. He then tested this model on the town of Plymouth, one of Massachusetts\u2019 most flood-prone coastlines.<\/p>\n<p>Jiahang&#8217;s analysis revealed that in Plymouth, the greatest flood damage and the greatest social vulnerability overlap rather than falling on separate neighborhoods. The town&#8217;s two most socially vulnerable neighborhoods sit inside its highest-hazard flood zone. Because the residents least able to recover are also the most exposed, the finding changes whom towns and insurers should protect first. His method now lives in InnSure\u2019s social burden framework, where it is shaping the next version of the company\u2019s model planning.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7646\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7646\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Social-Burden-Framework-636x302.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"302\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7646\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Social-Burden-Framework-636x302.png 636w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Social-Burden-Framework-1024x487.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Social-Burden-Framework-768x365.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Social-Burden-Framework-800x380.png 800w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Social-Burden-Framework.png 1201w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7646\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">How Jiahang measures Social Burden \u2014 a flood&#8217;s dollar loss weighted by who can least afford it, summed into one yearly figure.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7647\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7647\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Building-Loss-Image-636x273.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"273\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7647\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Building-Loss-Image-636x273.png 636w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Building-Loss-Image-1024x440.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Building-Loss-Image-768x330.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Building-Loss-Image-1536x660.png 1536w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Building-Loss-Image-2048x879.png 2048w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/He_Building-Loss-Image-800x344.png 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7647\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Where the loss concentrates \u2014 potential building-loss hotspots. Building footprints shaded by assessed value \u00d7 coastal depth\u2013damage at a 4-ft wave event: (a) full Zone of Interest; (b) town-center \/ harbor detail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Project Deliverables:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Component-Method Note operationalizing InnSure\u2019s Social Burden metric, a four-component method for valuing displacement, lost income, health, and uncompensated loss.<\/li>\n<li>A rebuilt flood-risk framework inside InnSure\u2019s prototype web application.<\/li>\n<li>Conference abstract and peer-reviewed journal article operationalizing the social burden of coastal flooding in preparation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Watch Jiahang&#8217;s URBAN internship lightning talk <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/jPzl87iD0JU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Project Partner: InnSure, Summer 2026 Project Summary: When a flood hits, we determine the damage in dollars very well. We are far worse at determining who cannot recover. Standard flood models estimate the cost to repair buildings. They miss the renter displaced for weeks, the hourly worker who loses wages instead of property, and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24039,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24039"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7645"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7669,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7645\/revisions\/7669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}