Margaret A. Walls
Senior Fellow; Director, Climate Risks and Resilience Program
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
Featured Content
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Webinar — Oct 28, 2024
Environmental Justice in Regulatory Decisionmaking
Environmental Justice in Regulatory Decisionmaking
Common Resources — Oct 7, 2024
Climate Change, Hurricane Helene, and the Unreliability of History as a Guide to Extreme Weather
Hurricane Helene struck communities that had been considered relatively safe from extreme weather. The storm exemplifies a pattern that has emerged as climate change has intensified: catastrophic weather events can happen anywhere.
Resources Magazine — Oct 7, 2024
Elections Matter. So Does Policy Research.
As the presidential election nears, and regardless of outcome, researchers at Resources for the Future continue to pursue work that will inspire interest, bipartisan coalitions, and progress on policy issues, given the political resilience of the topics.
Resources Magazine — Oct 7, 2024
Putting Resources for the Future on the Map
The “souvenirs” that RFF researchers bring back from their global travels—new perspectives, knowledge, stories, and photos—show a world of Resources that are out there and worth sharing.
Report — Sep 23, 2024
Building Climate Resilience in Vulnerable Communities: Analyzing Designation and Use of Community Disaster Resilience Zones
Building Climate Resilience in Vulnerable Communities: Analyzing Designation and Use of Community Disaster Resilience Zones
Journal Article — Aug 5, 2024
Removing Development Incentives in Risky Areas Promotes Climate Adaptation
The study explores the long-term economic impacts of the Coastal Barrier Resources System, a policy enacted in the 1980s that made certain high-risk areas ineligible for federal flood insurance policies, public infrastructure investments, and post-disaste
Explainer — Jul 18, 2024
Weather Volatility 101
This explainer explores trends in extreme heat, precipitation, and weather disasters in the United States.
Report — Jul 18, 2024
Facing Wildfire Insurance Challenges: Five Lessons from the National Flood Insurance Program
What can the United States' long history of insuring flooding losses teach us about the insurability of wildfires?
Webinar — Oct 28, 2024
Environmental Justice in Regulatory Decisionmaking
Environmental Justice in Regulatory Decisionmaking
Environmental Justice Series — Mar 6, 2024
Environmental Justice: Taking Stock of Justice40
A virtual event exploring the implementation of Justice40, the US federal government's largest environmental justice initiative
RFF Live — Oct 12, 2022
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.
Environmental Justice Series — Mar 24, 2022
Environmental Justice: Screening Tools, EJ Indexes, and Justice40
Understanding the uses of EJ screening tools—and the strengths and weaknesses of alternative approaches—for Justice40 and similar programs
Common Resources — Oct 7, 2024
Climate Change, Hurricane Helene, and the Unreliability of History as a Guide to Extreme Weather
Hurricane Helene struck communities that had been considered relatively safe from extreme weather. The storm exemplifies a pattern that has emerged as climate change has intensified: catastrophic weather events can happen anywhere.
Resources Magazine — Oct 7, 2024
Elections Matter. So Does Policy Research.
As the presidential election nears, and regardless of outcome, researchers at Resources for the Future continue to pursue work that will inspire interest, bipartisan coalitions, and progress on policy issues, given the political resilience of the topics.
Resources Magazine — Oct 7, 2024
Putting Resources for the Future on the Map
The “souvenirs” that RFF researchers bring back from their global travels—new perspectives, knowledge, stories, and photos—show a world of Resources that are out there and worth sharing.
Resources Magazine — Oct 7, 2024
What’s at the Top of Your Stack?
For the “Top of the Stack” segment, podcast guests recommend a diverse range of media that make their tall reading stacks wobble (whether literally or metaphorically).
Media Highlight — Oct 4, 2024
Business Insider: “A Majority of North Carolina Homeowners Didn’t Have Flood Insurance. Then Helene Hit.”
RFF scholars Margaret Walls and Yanjun (Penny) Liao talk about understated flood risk in this article published in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Media Highlight — Oct 3, 2024
The Hill: “Western North Carolina Was Hailed as a ‘Climate Haven.’ Hurricane Helene Shows It’s Not So Simple.”
RFF Senior Fellow Margaret Walls shares her thoughts on extreme weather trends in this article about damage from Hurricane Helene.
Media Highlight — Nov 27, 2023
The Bay Journal: “More Coastal Land along the Bay Could Get Federal ‘Protection’"
RFF Senior Fellow Margaret Walls shares her thoughts on how changes to the Coastal Barriers Resources System will affect the Chesapeake region.
Press Release — Aug 14, 2023
Western US Wildfire Smoke Costs $2.3 Billion per Year in Health Impacts and Lost Enjoyment
A new working paper, published by scholars at RFF and the University of Alaska Anchorage, finds that camping trips to public lands are worth $107 less on average if they are affected by wildfire smoke.