Response to Climate Change
In response to concerns about the impact of climate change on Southeast Florida, many local municipalities, county governments and regional collaboratives are planning for or already implementing strategies to make communities more resilient. Broward County in 2009, for instance, assembled a Climate Change Task Force which tapped hundreds of experts and engaged citizens in drafting a Climate Change Action Plan that outlined adaptation strategies. Published in 2010, the plan included 126 recommendations to be implemented across all county agencies.
Adaptation strategies fell into two major areas: (mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change. Among the recommendations for the latter were goals such as encouraging “greener,” more efficient and more durable construction practices—specifically by encouraging municipalities and builders to adopt environmentally-responsible design standards on construction projects. Other recommendations included suggesting basing finish floor elevation standards on projected sea level rise scenarios and flooding potential and incorporating building design specifications that increase resistance to impacts from more frequent and intense storm events. Indeed, the County—in its planning and design of projects as well as the operations of community services—was endeavoring to prepare for the impact of severe tropical storms, sea level rise leading to coastal and inland flooding, rising groundwater levels and other extreme conditions.
The plan encouraged municipalities to rethink traditional approaches to land use and land management, building and infrastructure siting and design, and community planning to improve climate resilience. In addition, the plan called for the county to assess the impacts of climate change on the build environment and provide tools for climate resilience, support climate-resilient investments and prioritize risk reduction. Broward identified areas particularly vulnerable to flooding due to either sea level rise or stormwater inundation and intended to work directly with municipalities to adopt land use regulations to limit development or redevelopment in in these areas.
The plan also addressed the County’s concerns about advancing saltwater intrusion (accelerated by sea level rise), which had contaminated the coastal edge of the Biscayne Aquifer, the main drinking water supply in the County. Scientists predicted saltwater intrusion could reduce coastal wellfield capacity by as much as 40% by 2060, causing Broward to include mitigation strategies in its plan including improving surface water storage, redistribution and aquifer recharge and ensuring that surface water storage accommodates projected rainfall, tidal flooding, and sea level and groundwater level rise.
The Regional Climate Compact
Simultaneously, in 2009, commissioners from Broward and three other Southeast Florida counties gathered in Washington to press for the federal government to prioritize climate change adaptation. “The folklore is that the commissioners bumped into each other in the halls of the Capitol and came to the realization that it was crazy to be working separately on this issue because we are part of a regional economy; rising sea levels do not respect county or municipal borders,” says Jason Leighty.
Soon after, in January 2010, Broward, Miami-Dad, Monroe and Palm Beach counties formed The Southeast Florida Climate Change Compact, which arose out of their shared recognition of regional vulnerabilities. The Compact members—whose counties represented about six million residents across 108 municipalities—agreed to coordinate mitigation and adaptation strategies across county lines. “Working together means we aren’t competing for the same resources and potentially coming up with solutions that are at cross-purposes. [Solutions] need to be coordinated and developed at larger scales. And for us the regional scale made the most sense,” says Leighty.
The Compact developed the Regional Climate Action Plan (RCAP), adopted a unified regional sea level rise projection, and vulnerability assessments for infrastructure, public health, and natural systems. “We work together to develop solutions to help adapt a built environment to rising sea levels, rising ground water levels, the storm water management issues that we have. And everything in between,” says Jason Liechty, describing the voluntary, bi-partisan effort.
While the Compact itself was ratified in 2010, the action plan—containing 110 action items was formally adopted in the spring of 2014. The RCAP did not include a mandate but rather guidance and recommendations that regional and local governments could use based on their own resources and needs.
The Mayor’s Climate Action Pledge
In the meantime, in 2005, the U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement a framework for more than 1,000 municipalities throughout the U.S. to address the impact of climate change. In 2012, mayors within Southeast Florida collaborated to develop a regional agreement—modeled after the national version—and invited local municipalities to sign on. The South Florida Mayors’ Climate Action Pledge specifically encouraged municipalities to collaborate on implementation of the RCAP. “All the municipalities have a chance to benefit,” explains Liechty, “Because cities of 10,000 on the ocean just do not have staff capacity to do resilient, building analyses or their own sea level rise projections,” he says, noting that by signing on, municipalities could use a common, agreed-to projection as the basis for their water infrastructure, development and land use planning efforts. “It’s really been a watershed collaboration,” says Liechty.