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  • Climate in the Gulf • The Report • For Teachers  • Overview • Slow the Change • Speed our Response  • Overview • Water Resources • Sea-Level Change • Human Perspectives |
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Florida
Most of Florida's shoreline has been rapidly developed as residential, recreational and tourism sites over the last 40 years. Other areas—such as the international seaport in Tampa Bay—have long been critically important industrial locations and transportation hubs. As development and economic activity in coastal areas have increased, so has societal vulnerability to coastal hazards.
More on Florida:
Introduction | Climate Projections | Freshwater Resources | Agriculture | Forestry | Coastal Development | Tourism & Recreation | Human Health | Fisheries | Unique Habitats | FL Resources & Links Photo Credits: Panther - South Florida Water Management District. Beach nourishment - M. Harvey. A heron in a mangrove - South Florida Information Access (SOFIA), http://sofia.usgs.gov |
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Florida's coastal ecosystems—such as estuaries, mangroves, and seagrass beds—and managed land for agriculture, forestry, and tourism will face new challenges with a changing climate. These places will experience the combined impacts of human pressures and higher temperatures, accelerated sea-level rise, changing rainfall patterns, and accompanying changes in the frequency and intensity of wildfires. The diversity of species and habitats in the coastal zone and the benefits they provide are likely to diminish unless ecosystems have the time and space to adapt or migrate to more suitable habitat.
Sea-level rise will also increase storm surges, even if hurricanes and tropical storms do not become more intense. Thus, greater economic losses from storms, and higher repair and maintenance costs, such as the costs of maintaining port and industrial facilities or beach replenishment, must be expected in the future.
