| Adaptation Action Areas (AAAs) | As defined by Florida Statute, an adaptation action area” or “adaptation area” means a designation in the coastal management element of a local government’s comprehensive plan which identifies one or more areas that experience coastal flooding due to extreme high tides and storm surge, and that are vulnerable to the related impacts of rising sea levels for the purpose of prioritizing funding for infrastructure needs and adaptation planning. |
| Allied health care | Medical professionals who work to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases and illnesses. They also apply management and administration skills to support health care systems and apply scientific principles and evidence-based practices to assist patients. |
| Agrivoltaics | Agricultural production, such as crop production, livestock grazing and pollinator habitat that exists underneath solar panels and/or in between rows of solar panels, where co-location improves the performance of both the solar panels and agriculture production. |
| Carbon farming | The process of changing agricultural and land use practices to increase the amount of carbon stored or sequestered in the soil and vegetation and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, soil or vegetation. |
| Central and Southern Florida (C&SF) Flood Control Study | The Central and Southern Florida Project is a multi-purpose project, first authorized by Congress in 1948, that provides flood control; water supply for municipal, industrial, and agricultural uses; prevention of saltwater intrusion; water supply for Everglades National Park and protection of fish and wildlife resources. The C&SF Study analyzes the current Central and Southern Florida Project, designed 72 years ago, to determine what infrastructure is at the highest risk of impact from a changing climate and address flood vulnerabilities, water supply needs and surge protection. |
| Climate resilience | The ability to anticipate, prepare for and respond to acute shocks, disruptions and hazardous events or longer-term, chronic stressors related to or exacerbated by climate change. Improving climate resilience involves assessing how climate change will create new, or alter current, climate-related risks, and taking steps to better cope with these risks. Climate resilience includes both adaptation and mitigation strategies. |
| Community Rating System (CRS) | A voluntary incentive program that recognizes and encourages community floodplain management practices that exceed the minimum requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program. |
| Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) | The single largest restoration program underway in the South Florida ecosystem. The CERP, authorized by the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2000, is implemented by a federal-state partnership to restore, protect and preserve the region’s water resources by addressing the quantity, quality, timing and distribution of water. |
| Complete streets | Streets designed and operated to enable safe use and to support mobility for all users, including people of all ages and abilities, regardless of whether they are traveling as drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists or public transportation riders. |
| Design storm event | A hypothetical storm event of a given frequency interval and duration used in analysis and design. |
| Energy burden | The percentage of gross household income spent on energy costs. Of all U.S. households, 25% face a high energy burden (i.e., pay more than 6% of income on energy bills) and 13% of U.S. households face a severe energy burden (i.e., pay more than 10% of income on energy). |
| Exposure-outcome association | An assessment that describes how the likelihood of an adverse health effect or outcome is related to an environmental hazard or exposure. In the context of climate change, the exposures of interest can be weather-related, like ambient temperature, precipitation and extreme weather events; or weather-mediated, like pollen levels or factors affecting the environmental presence of water-borne or vector-borne pathogens. |
| Flood Protection Level of Service (FPLOS) | A South Florida Water Management District program to identify and prioritize long-term infrastructure improvement needs and develop an implementation strategy to ensure that each basin can maintain its designated Flood Protection Level of Service technically and cost-effectively in response to population growth, land development, sea level rise and changing climate conditions. |
| Form-based codes | A way to regulate development that controls building form first and building use second, with the purpose of achieving a particular type of “place” or built environment based on a community vision. |
| Frontline communities | The term frontline communities/populations is used throughout this document to broadly describe those both highly exposed to climate risks and with fewer resources, capacity, safety nets or political power to respond to those risks. This includes, but is not limited to, those with low income or low wealth, people of color, older adults, the unhoused, immigrants, differently-abled people, youth, outdoor workers, non-English speakers and those with chronic health conditions. |
| Green Infrastructure | Nature-based or ecological systems/features/areas that serve as living infrastructure and provide support with environmental challenges, such as flood attenuation and heat mitigation. Throughout this document, the term green infrastructure is used synonymously with nature-based solutions and encompasses blue infracture, or water elements (e.g. rivers, canals, ponds, wetlands, floodplains, etc.). |
| Hybrid infrastructure | The integration of green infrastructure or nature-based systems/features/areas with more traditional, man-made, “gray” infrastructure approaches (e.g. pipes, pumps, seawalls, etc.). |
| Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) | The application of sensing, analysis, control and communications technologies to ground transportation in order to improve safety, mobility and efficiency. ITS includes a wide range of applications that process and share information to ease congestion, improve traffic management, minimize environmental impact and increase the benefits of transportation to commercial users and the public in general. |
| Inclusive financing | All individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products regardless of their personal net worth or company size. |
| Integrated Delivery Schedule | A forward-looking snapshot of upcoming design and construction schedules and programmatic costs at a “top” line level for the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Program. It is a tool that provides information to decision-makers — synchronizing program and project priorities with the State of Florida and achieving the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan objectives at the earliest practicable time, consistent with annual funding updates and the interdependencies between project components. |
| Integrated water management | An integrated and coordinated approach to managing water that looks holistically at the planning and management of land and water supply, wastewater and stormwater systems to maximize economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems and the environment. |
| Just transition | A principle, an inclusive process and a practice that ensures the benefits and potential costs of the transition towards a low-carbon, more resilient and sustainable economy are shared equitably. A just transition puts people at the center, minimizing the burdens decarbonization poses to those who work in or are dependent on carbon-intensive, extractive industries, and bolsters inclusive economic opportunities shared by all. |
| Last mile connections | This term describes the beginning or end of an individual trip made primarily by public transportation. |
| Lower East Coast Water Supply Plan | A plan that presents population and water demand projections through 2040, a review of water supply issues and evaluations, and a list of water source options. It also examines local and regional water supply efforts completed since the 2013 plan update and describes water resource and water supply development projects from 2016 to 2040. The Lower East Coast Water Supply Plan Area covers all of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, most of Monroe County, and portions of eastern Hendry and Collier counties. |
| Low- to moderate-income (LMI) | Families and individuals whose annual incomes do not exceed 80% of the area median income as determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This definition includes very low-, low- and moderate-income households. |
| Micromobility | Any small, low-speed, human- or electric-powered transportation device, including bicycles, scooters, electric-assist bicycles, electric scooters (e-scooters) and other small, lightweight, wheeled conveyances. Such devices are typically partially or fully motorized. |
| Nature-based solutions | Nature-based solutions or approaches are sustainable planning, design, environmental management and engineering practices that weave natural features or processes into the built environment to promote adaptation and resilience. Nature-based solutions offer significant monetary and non-monetary benefits and can come at a lower cost than traditional “gray” infrastructure. Co-benefits include economic growth, green jobs, increased property values and better public health. Throughout this document, we also use the term “green infrastructure” as synonymous with nature-based solutions. |
| Net zero | Cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere by oceans and forests. It refers to a balance between greenhouse gas emissions produced and greenhouse gas emissions removed from the atmosphere. |
| Participatory budgeting | A citizen engagement process through which community members decide how to allocate a portion of a public budget. |
| Photo-voicing | A participatory method, defined by its creators Wang and Burris (1997) as a “process by which people can identify, represent and enhance their community through a specific photographic technique.” It uses images as a tool to deconstruct problems by posing meaningful questions in a community to find actionable solutions. |
| Precision agriculture | The science of improving crop yields, reducing labor time and assisting management decisions related to fertilizer use and irrigation using high-technology sensors and analysis tools. |
| Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) Programs | Voluntary programs to permanently preserve viable farmland through the acquisition of development rights while retaining private ownership and management. |
| Renewable energy | Energy derived from natural processes (e.g. sunlight and wind) that are replenished at a higher rate than they are consumed. Solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and biomass are common sources of renewable energy. |
| Resilience hubs | Community-serving facilities augmented to support residents, coordinate communication, distribute resources and reduce carbon pollution while enhancing quality of life. Hubs provide an opportunity to effectively work at the nexus of community resilience, emergency management, climate change mitigation and social equity. These facilities also provide opportunities for communities to become more self-determining, socially connected and successful before, during and after disruptions. |
| Resilience standards | Standards developed in accordance with predicted future conditions scenarios intended to ensure that infrastructure meets the level of service standards for the expected design life. |
| Salinity control structures | Structures that control saltwater intrusion along a surface-water channel and assist in controlling saltwater intrusion into shallow aquifers. |
| Seepage barriers | Structures to control and mitigate the flow or seepage of water. Depending on the seepage barrier method employed, they are constructed using soil and bentonite, cement and bentonite, concrete, balanced stable cement grout or chemical grout. |
| Soft costs | Costs that are not associated with the hardware components of solar energy systems, including design, siting, permitting, installation, interconnection and financing. They also include the sales, general, and administrative expenses solar companies incur for customer acquisition, workforce training and certification, supply chain and inventory control and operating overhead. |
| Solar co-op | A group of property owners who leverage their bulk-purchasing power to decrease the cost of going solar, while still signing individual contracts that ensure the correct system for their application. |
| Transfer of development rights | A zoning technique used to permanently protect land with conservation value (such as farmland, community open space, or other natural or cultural resources) by redirecting development that would otherwise occur on this land to an area planned to accommodate growth and development. Such programs financially compensate landowners for choosing not to develop some or all of their land. |
| Transportation demand management | A combination of policies, programs, information, services and tools that work with the transportation infrastructure and operations to support the use of sustainable modes for all trips, encouraging travelers to maximize the efficiency of a transportation system, and leading to improved mobility, reduced congestion and lower vehicle emissions. |
| Vehicle-to-grid technology | Technology that allows idle or parked electric vehicles (EVs) to act as distributed sources which can store or release energy at appropriate times, thus allowing the exchange of power between the network and the EV. This increases the total capacity of electricity generation and improves the stability, reliability and efficiency of the network. |
| Vision zero | A strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. |
