Incremental advancements in public health adaptation to climate change in Florida

ABSTRACT

Several barriers to climate change adaptation exist, including lack of financial resources, limited technical capacity and prohibitive politics. However, there is limited praxis scholarship on the ways public health departments are planning for climate risks and how they navigate these challenges. This case study provides insights into the incremental strategies employed by public health professionals to address climate risks in Florida. The paper examines pilot adaptation projects proposed by county public health departments and supported by the Building Resilience Against Climate Effects program. We qualitatively evaluated eight projects through document reviews and interviews with state program administrators and project managers at the county level. Dedicated program funding developed evidenced-based platforms which informed traditional and experimental responses that directly or indirectly addressed climate-related hazards. Increasing the funding amounts to support pilot projects would help to move beyond the preparatory groundwork stage to broader and more sustained adaptation actions. Project managers acted incrementally to implement activities that expanded existing programs and did not generate negative political attention or publicity. Project managers also benefited from experiential learning opportunities which were supported by collaborative networks in order to implement ideas that extended beyond the traditional practice domains of public health departments.

KEYWORDS:

• Public health
• climate change
• adaptation
• incrementalism
• Florida

This article is related to:

Research for city practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by RWJF Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College [Grant #27DLH216]. 

Notes on contributors

Tisha Holmes

Tisha Holmes, MPA, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida State University. Her research seeks to reduce risk and build socio-ecological resilience to environmental hazards and promote grassroots level capacities through community outreach and participatory engagement.

David Eisenman

David Eisenman, MD, MSHS, is a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles and has a joint appointment at the University of California Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health, where he directs the Center for Public Health and Disasters.