Assessing Potential Impacts of Sea Level Rise on Public Health and Vulnerable Populations in Southeast Florida and Providing a Framework to Improve Outcomes

Bloetscher, Frederick; Polsky, Colin; Bolter, Keren; Mitsova, Diana; Garces, Kristin Palbicke; King, Roderick; Carballo, Isabel Cosio; Hamilton, Karen

doi:10.3390/su8040315

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Assessing Potential Impacts of Sea Level Rise on Public Health and Vulnerable Populations in Southeast Florida and Providing a Framework to Improve Outcomes

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Kristin Palbicke Garces

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Roderick King

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Isabel Cosio Carballo

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Karen Hamilton

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Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA

Center for Environmental Studies, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA

School of Urban and Regional Planning, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA

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Florida Institute for Health Innovation, West Palm Beach, FL 33407, USA

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South Florida Regional Planning Council, Hollywood, FL 33021, USA

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editors: William D. Shuster, Audrey L. Mayer and Ahjond S. Garmestani

Sustainability 2016, 8(4), 315; https://doi.org/10.3390/su8040315

Received: 12 January 2016 / Revised: 24 March 2016 / Accepted: 25 March 2016 / Published: 31 March 2016

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustaining the Shrinking City: Concepts, Dynamics and Management)

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Abstract

In recent years, ongoing efforts by a multitude of universities, local governments, federal agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been focused on sea-level rise (SLR) adaptation in Florida. However, within these efforts, there has been very little attention given to the potential impacts of sea-level rise on human health. The intent of this project is to identify populations in Southeast Florida that are most vulnerable to sea-level rise from a topographic perspective, determine how vulnerable these population are from a socio-economic perspective, identify potential health impacts, develop adaptation strategies designed to assist these communities, and produce an outreach effort that can be shared with other coastal communities. The location of socially-vulnerable and health-vulnerable populations are correlated, but at present they are not generally in the geographically-vulnerable areas. Projections indicate that they will become at risk in the future but the lack of data on emerging diseases makes public health assessments difficult. We propose a redefinition of “who is vulnerable?” to include health indicators and hard infrastructure solutions for flood and property protection. These tools can be used to help protect water resources from the impacts of climate change, which would, in turn, protect public health via drinking water supplies, and efforts to address social issues. View Full-Text

Keywords: sea level rise; vulnerable populations; groundwater; vector- and waterborne diseases

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Bloetscher, F.; Polsky, C.; Bolter, K.; Mitsova, D.; Garces, K.P.; King, R.; Carballo, I.C.; Hamilton, K. Assessing Potential Impacts of Sea Level Rise on Public Health and Vulnerable Populations in Southeast Florida and Providing a Framework to Improve Outcomes. Sustainability 2016, 8, 315. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8040315

AMA Style

Bloetscher F, Polsky C, Bolter K, Mitsova D, Garces KP, King R, Carballo IC, Hamilton K. Assessing Potential Impacts of Sea Level Rise on Public Health and Vulnerable Populations in Southeast Florida and Providing a Framework to Improve Outcomes. Sustainability. 2016; 8(4):315. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8040315

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bloetscher, Frederick, Colin Polsky, Keren Bolter, Diana Mitsova, Kristin P. Garces, Roderick King, Isabel C. Carballo, and Karen Hamilton. 2016. "Assessing Potential Impacts of Sea Level Rise on Public Health and Vulnerable Populations in Southeast Florida and Providing a Framework to Improve Outcomes" Sustainability 8, no. 4: 315. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8040315

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