Following the passage of several sea level rise and flooding resilience bills during the 2021 legislative session establishing the Florida Resilient Grant Program to fund resilience planning, this workshop aims to help prepare local governments in Southeast Florida to assess vulnerability and ensure alignment with state requirements. Vulnerability assessments are foundational to identifying the people, places, and infrastructure most vulnerable to climate change, and are the first step to adaptation responses that strategically direct resources and funding. This workshop provided a comprehensive overview of best practices for conducting vulnerability assessments, as well as value-add to those who have already undertaken this exercise by ensuring alignment with new state requirements, and integration of socioeconomic information that is central to a robust analysis.

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Workshop Recording

Objectives for this Workshop included understanding of:

• Opportunities for state and federal funding to support local government resilience planning and key criteria/requirements
• Necessary alignment with State guidance in order to position for project-related funding
• Basic components and key concepts of vulnerability assessments
• Landscape of federal, regional, and local open data resources, tools, and resources to support community assessment of vulnerability
• Best practices for putting people at the center of vulnerability assessments and integration of socioeconomic information

This workshop advanced the following recommendations of the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact Regional Climate Action Plan’s (RCAP 2.0):

• RR-1 Identify and quantify infrastructure and populations at risk to sea level rise and storm surge.
  • Perform local vulnerability analyses to identify and quantify infrastructure and populations at risk under various sea level rise scenarios and other climate change scenarios.
  • Use the best available data, models, and resources, including the Compact’s Unified Sea Level Rise Projection, to inform planning, prioritizing, and annual funding.
• EQ-2 Integrate social vulnerability data into all local government processes.
• ST-3 Use vulnerability and risk assessment analyses and tools to identify priorities
  for resilience investments.
• Conduct new or utilize existing vulnerability and risk analyses and other technical tools to identify areas requiring adaptation strategy development.
• Document, inventory, and share data sources, thresholds, criteria, and models to encourage the use of common approaches to vulnerability analysis and, ultimately, the development of adaptation strategies that will be complementary across infrastructure sectors and result in a cohesive, resilient built environment.

Audience/Participant targets:

1. 1. Sustainability and resilience practitioners
   2. Housing, transportation, land-use, and community development planners
   3. Public health professionals 
   4. Community-based organizations
   5. Private sector/consultants supporting with vulnerability assessments 
   6. Academia supporting with vulnerability assessments