Resilient Florida: The intersection of policy and planning for coastal communities

Angela Schedel, Ph.D., P.E., Vice President, Taylor Engineering, Jacksonville, FL

Join us for the live stream August 31, 11:45am EST: youtu.be/DfD6IBVx2yM
(Please visit our youtube channel main page for the stream if there are any issues with the direct link.)

ABSTRACT

Responding to rising sea-levels and higher intensity storms, the Florida Legislature recently passed two new laws which require data-driven quantitative assessments to evaluate resilience. One of the new Florida Statutes mandates that any state-financed major construction in the coastal building zone must first be evaluated by a sea level impact projection (SLIP) study. Dr. Schedel worked with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to develop the technical standards necessary to implement the law, as well as created a map-based web application to standardize each SLIP study report.

The second law established the Resilient Florida grant program, which recently awarded $520M to communities for community resilience planning, which includes coastal and inland flooding vulnerability assessments, adaptation plans, and construction projects to reduce flooding. The Taylor Engineering resilience team led by Dr. Schedel helped FDEP create a standardized framework outlining the recommended steps and minimum engineering guidance necessary to develop practical and strategic vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans for communities at risk of flooding.

This presentation will discuss Florida’s recent ground-breaking legislation which provides resources used to guide local decision makers in resilience planning and mitigating future flooding. Dr. Schedel will explain the engineering calculations behind the SLIP Tool’s algorithm and discuss the methods for conducting vulnerability assessments. She will present an example of one community’s planning effort – the 2021 resilience plan for the City of Venice, Florida – funded by an FDEP Florida Resilient Coastlines Program grant.

Bio

Dr. Angela Schedel is a Vice President at Taylor Engineering in Jacksonville, Florida and leads the Coastal Planning group. She oversees a variety of projects conducting vulnerability assessments, creating adaptation strategies, and advocating for long-term resilience planning for local municipalities, the state of Florida, and federal clients. A recently retired Naval Officer, Dr. Schedel served 20 years as a helicopter pilot and an engineering professor at the U.S. Naval Academy. She currently serves on the Florida Building Commission’s Hurricane Research Advisory Board and is a Community Resilience Educator for the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions. Her experience conducting resilience planning for National Historic Landmark communities is unmatched in the coastal engineering industry. 

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