A new study released on Wednesday says the Sunshine state needs to do its homework to prepare for weather threats linked to climate change.
It gave Florida an overall C- grade in climate change preparedness.
The study by ICF International and Climate Central is the first assessment of its kind that evaluates how local governments in the U.S. face their climate change threats.
These threats were divided into five categories: extreme heat, drought, wildfires, inland flooding and coastal flooding. “Florida is one of only six states nationwide to face significant increasing threats in all five categories,” said a States At Risk press release.
The results of this study were shared on Wednesday by local climate change researchers at Florida Atlantic University.
“From just based in our region, [the priority] would be coastal flooding, the sea-level rise impact,” says Natalie Schneider, Palm Beach County’s Climate Change and Sustainability Coordinator. “That’s going to be the thing that we really see an impact on from Palm Beach County all the way down to Monroe.”
Schneider says the county commission adopted on Tuesday the Unified Sea Level Rise Projection for Southeast Florida. The document contains sea-level rise data gathered from different government agencies that will be used to predict sea rise patterns and for ratifying future county legislation.
For Chris Bergh, conservation director of Nature Conservancy South Florida, coastal and inland flooding is an important area of concern: “The fact that we already face significant risks from coastal storms, hurricanes and that the sea is rising at an increasingly rapid pace, make it imperative that we determine what we’re going to do, what it’s going to cost, and how are we going to begin to take action.”
Leonard Berry, emeritus professor of geosciences at Florida Atlantic University, said South Florida needs to change the way it manages water in the long-run.
"Older communities," he added, "both in age and in structure, are the most vulnerable” to inland flooding because they have an outdated water drainage system from 50 years ago.
Bergh, Schneider and Berry agree that government at the state and federal level should work more closely with counties across Florida to better address these issues.