Fort Lauderdale Adopts Flood Protection Measures

Fort Lauderdale Becomes Florida's First City to Adopt Adaptation Action Areas Innovative Program Aims to Protect Community Against Local Flood Hazard      Fort Lauderdale, FL - Building upon its leadership in the area of sustainability, the City of Fort Lauderdale has become the first municipality in Florida to approve the use of Adaptation Action Areas to fight rising seas and coastal flooding. The new policy enables Fort Lauderdale to identify portions of the City that are vulnerable to flooding and prioritize those areas for adaptation measures and infrastructure improvements. Fort Lauderdale volunteered to serve as the project's pilot community as part of an ongoing effort to protect quality of life by increasing the City's resilience to the damaging effects of climate change. The City's successful implementation of this game-changing initiative will now serve as a model for other communities throughout Florida and around the country.   Fort Lauderdale's seven miles of shoreline and 165 miles of inland waterways, coupled with its flat topography and dense development make it susceptible to erosion, coastal flooding, storm surge, and high tides. A recent neighbor survey and communitywide visioning initiative revealed that residents are experiencing more frequent flooding in their neighborhoods, and have a greater sense of urgency to address the growing hazard. The neighbor directive prompted the City to revolutionize its operations by adopting a strategic approach that proactively considers changing climate conditions when planning for the future.   "This is a tremendous milestone for our community. We are bringing our citywide Vision to life by creating the tools we need to reduce our risk to the damaging effects of climate change. I am proud that Fort Lauderdale was able to successfully serve as a pilot community for the Adaptation Action Areas program, and I look forward to working with our regional partners to implement similar programs to address this significant environmental challenge," said Fort Lauderdale Mayor John P. "Jack" Seiler. "Continuing to utilize a collaborative and comprehensive approach will enable us to work together today to meet the changing climate conditions of tomorrow and, by doing so, strengthen our resilience and protect our long-term livability, sustainability and prosperity."   Developed in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Broward County and the South Florida Regional Planning Council, the Adaptation Action Area initiative will serve as a program that can be replicated in other communities looking to defend against coastal hazards and related impacts of sea level rise. Approved by the City Commission and the state, the Adaptation Action Area policies were formally adopted into Fort Lauderdale's Comprehensive Plan in January 2015.   In addition to safeguarding public infrastructure, the Adaptation Action Areas are also intended to protect neighbors, resources, services, private property, and the environment from the threat of natural hazards, particularly in the coastal high-hazard areas. The policies outlined in the Comprehensive Plan address the identification of vulnerable infrastructure, development of adaptation strategies, criteria for area designation, funding options, and alignment with existing local and regional plans.   Through Adaptation Action Areas, the reconstruction of A1A, the establishment of a Sustainability Division, the active participation in the South Florida Regional Climate Change Compact, global partnerships, and numerous ongoing initiatives, the City of Fort Lauderdale is leading cooperative efforts to pursue comprehensive action that protects the region's economy and quality of life. Going forward, Fort Lauderdale will continue to actively pursue effective solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change.   For more information about Fort Lauderdale's proactive sustainable initiatives and partnerships to create a stronger and more resilient community, visit the City website at www.fortlauderdale.gov.   ###     City of Fort Lauderdale 100 N. Andrews Avenue Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301 www.fortlauderdale.gov

 

Is “resilience” the new sustainababble?

 

 

By Laurie Mazur and Denise Fairchild on 14 Jan 2015

 

Suddenly, "resilience" is everywhere. It's the subject of serious books and breezy news articles, of high-minded initiatives and of many, many conferences. After Superstorm Sandy, it was triumphantly plastered on city buses, declaring New Jersey "A State of Resilience."

 

What's going on? Does all this talk about resilience mean that we've basically given up on averting climate change and other environmental catastrophes — and that our only hope is to roll with the punches? Have we leapfrogged over denial, anger, and bargaining, landing squarely in acceptance?

 

Not necessarily. Resilience, like sustainability before it, is an idea with potentially transformative power. Resilience is all about our capacity to survive and thrive in the face of disruptions of all kinds. If we were to take resilience seriously (highly recommended in our increasingly disruption-prone world), we would make some far-reaching changes in how we live.

 

A truly resilient city would look very different from those we now inhabit — in ways that would make Grist readers proud. For example, our resilient city would:

 

• Rely on distributed, renewable energy, rather than on the ridiculously vulnerable centralized grid — so that a disruption in one area doesn't mean lights out for everyone.
• Support diversified local agriculture, so that when supply chains are cut off, we can continue to eat.
• Foster social equity and inclusion, so that the greatest risks are not dumped on the most vulnerable communities.
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, because the worst projected impacts of climate change are simply more than we can adapt to.

 Or at least that's what resilience should mean. But right now, the meaning is up for grabs. And it seems that resilience might be following the same trajectory as "sustainability." That concept 

shaped the thinking of a generation of enviros, and laid the foundation for real improvements in energy efficiency, recycling, and more. But it has also been co-opted to cover up distinctly unsustainable practices, mutating into what Bob Engelman of the Worldwatch Institute calls "sustainababble." After all, it is more profitable to pretend to be sustainable than to actually be so.

 

Now the co-opters are hard at work on "resilience." For example, the pollutocrat-friendly American Enterprise Institute, which opposes efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promotes instead what it calls the "resilience option" for climate change. (In essence: Deal with it.)

 

Aside from out-and-out co-optation, there is a danger that resilience will be defined too narrowly, and deprived of its power to transform. Too often, resilience is simply seen as bouncing back after disaster (let's build bigger beach houses on the Jersey shore!) or as protecting the status quo (the Stafford Act, which funds federal disaster response, requires that everything be built back exactly as it was before).

 

 
 

 

You could say that "sustainability" was hollowed out by co-optation, but also by a failure of imagination. We enviros haven't really mounted a challenge to an economic system based on growth and profit at all costs, and we have missed opportunities to join forces with others challenging that system. If "resilience" is just about making that system stronger, it, too, will ring hollow.

 

So, is resilience the new sustainababble? It doesn't have to be. The need for resilience could jump-start significant changes in our built environment, our relationship with the natural world, and our relationships with one other. But to seize that opportunity, we need to get real about what resilience is — and what it isn't.

 

This is the first in a series of posts where we hope to do just that. We will lay out some truly transformative thinking about resilience, from a diverse group of ecologists, activists, urban planners, and others — including Grist readers. Stay tuned.

 

http://grist.org/article/is-resilience-the-new-sustainababble/