IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section A

Abstract

Inundated roads, neighborhoods, and strip malls have become emblematic of the weak points in Hillsborough County’s resilience networks. Simultaneously, emergent stories about community responses demonstrate the value of and continued need for social and information networks. The region is both urban and rural at a scale that proves difficult to execute meaningful engagement, modeling, and forecasting for the County’s Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan. While Florida’s coastal flooding from storm surge is often expected during the annual hurricane season, three record shattering back-to-back hurricanes recently tested Tampa Bay’s infrastructure and development patterns that date back to the post-WWII development boom. They provide an invaluable moment of pause in the planning process to learn through recovery and to reevaluate how the community conceptualizes adaptation. Projected flood scenario modeling juxtaposed with real-time experiences illustrates comparative insight into the scale of the vulnerabilities, including the linkages between networks of social capital, infrastructures, and natural resources. The proposal explores how, too often, communities reckoning with water-related climate hazards are given 3 options; retreat, accommodate, or fortify. The framework allows for the complex reality of adapting to flood conditions when factoring in cultural histories that are wrapped in generational identity and the financial constraints associated with lack of agency in marginalized communities. In this context, the sociocultural response to retreat as a component of adaptation is met with resistance; requiring communities to rethink their relationships to the waterfront and challenging long held identities of what it means to be a thriving city.