Each year, members of the Gulf of Mexico Climate and Resilience Community of Practice (CoP) recognizes a community for its exemplary work in climate communication and environmental resilience. This year, the city of Apalachicola, located in northwest Florida, was named the recipient of the 2020 Spirit of Community Award in the community category.
Apalachicola is an exemplary case of climate change adaptation. In 2017, the city developed a sea-level rise vulnerability assessment, which highlighted concerns regarding critical facilities and historical buildings that are critical to the city’s economic resilience. The city also explored options for increasing resilience to sea-level rise while maintaining the historical integrity of their downtown economic center.
Currently, Apalachicola is developing nonstructural plans and estimates in collaboration with mitigation experts and historic preservation architects to develop recommendations to help mitigate flood damage to 10 vulnerable historical buildings. Through the team’s efforts to analyze the buildings and develop recommended mitigation plans and estimates, local leaders will have additional resources to offer when pursuing state and federal grant funds for the historic properties.
In pursuit of these objectives, Apalachicola’s staff and local leaders have worked with numerous public and private partners. Some notable partners include federal agencies, such as the NOAA Office for Coastal Management, regional partners, such as the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve, and private sector firms like 4M Design Group, PA, Ducky Johnson Home Elevation, LLC and L&R Resources, LLC. These collaborative partnerships have resulted in policy endeavors that bring together the best available science and adaptation practices to address the resilience needs of the community.
The strides made by the city of Apalachicola show how Gulf communities, by leveraging small grants, can move through the steps of climate adaptation to increase community resilience. Additionally, balancing preservation of historical and cultural assets while addressing sea-level rise vulnerability is an area of considerable need across the Gulf of Mexico. Apalachicola’s work will provide many other communities with creative approaches to sea-level rise adaptation.
Apalachicola has collaborated with multiple partners to bring together the best available science and adaptation practices to address resilience needs within their community. The city has taken resilience measures that exemplify unique policy approaches and collaborative decision-making that other communities can emulate and follow as they address environmental challenges of their own. These exemplary qualities show why Apalachicola was selected as the recipient of the 2020 Spirit of Community Award.