Climate Resilience Center

Space Coast RESCUE (REsilience Solutions for Climate, Urbanization, and Environment)

The Florida Space Coast faces climate resilience challenges and risks that are representative of many coastal communities nationwide. These hazards include heat stress, extreme precipitation, hurricanes (wind, surge, and flooding), and coastal erosion. Inland flooding events are increasing due to development, heavy precipitation and subsequent stormwater runoff, which also affects water quality and human health.

For those who live along the Indian River Lagoon, a narrow 250 km long coastal estuary subject to many stressors including urban development, the local flooding risks are increased. The combination of climate change and associated economic stresses is particularly acute in underserved areas of these coastal communities. In recent years, energy costs and homeowner insurance rates have nearly doubled and are three times the national average. These challenges disproportionately impact the disadvantaged, creating roadblocks to clean energy solutions and climate resilience in areas with the greatest needs.

To address these challenges, Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech) has partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) and a local grassroots organization (Little Growers) on a climate resilience project that will:

1. Engage local disadvantaged communities by collaborating with grassroots nonprofits and a Title 1 middle school in Melbourne on Florida’s Space Coast,
2. Use new and existing DOE Argonne datasets and model simulations to provide comprehensive information to stakeholders and community leaders on climate impacts and coastal resilience,
3. Formulate practical adaptation strategies. In particular:
   1. Identify weather patterns that impact the local sea-breeze, relate these to summer rainfall, and in the case of storms and hurricanes, to extreme coastal flooding from the combined effects of heavy rainfall and wind-driven water;
   2. Identify the impact of urban heat island effects and precipitation changes on future heat stress;
   3. Conduct building energy audits and drone-supported thermal mapping to assess current efficiencies and to identify ways to reduce energy consumption;
   4. Perform model simulations of buildings in underserved areas with the use of downscaled future climate data to evaluate increased energy demands due to climate change to explore cost-effective solutions;
   5. Engage the underserved community in citizen science and crowd-sourcing projects related to flooding and heat island monitoring; and
   6. promote outreach and science translation by: supporting a liaison position between the project and underserved community, participating in a local summer educational camp, climate resilience forums, and developing climate-resilient community gardens.

An essential component of the project is to establish proactive and cost-effective strategies that effectively address local climate issues, enhance and inform urban infrastructure, and safeguard the Indian River Lagoon. Our solutions will involve the development of evidence-based best practices, maps of neighborhood heat stress and flooding, and building energy tools that aid urban planning in underserved communities of the Space Coast.