What is the Resilience Team doing? We are looking at ways to measure risks along the Gulf Coast related to tropical storms and other natural disasters, climate change, sea level rise, and development pressures. We provide tools and guidance for local governments and work to educate citizens about disaster preparedness, sustainability, and economic innovation. We are creating an Index for communities to measure their ability to bounce back from storms, floods and climate-related impacts.
Why? Since human and natural systems are constantly changing, we want to help communities minimize risks and losses. This will be critical to the region's long-term viability and success.
What does this Alliance Team call itself? Coastal Community Resiliency
Coastal Community Resilience
Speaker: Mickie Valente
Hello, I'm Mickie Valente, and I'm a member of the Resiliency Team with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance. Living and working in the Tampa Bay area, I have a personal commitment to the Gulf Coast. Building sustainable communities and building communities that have the ability to withstand and adapt to changes, whether imposed by natural or man-made catastrophes - we understand that all business, from traditional manufacturers, to professional service firms, function through a value chain, and that each entity along the way contributes.
The operation of our communities also depends on interdependency, and a team, working toward shared goals. That resiliency chain in composed of four main pillars: ecology, infrastructure, social and cultural support systems, and the commerce and economic systems that pays for all the activities. Our Resiliency Index is a way to measure a community's capacity to endure and recover from detrimental change. It makes sense. With this proactive approach, we can determine the indicators of a healthy, sustainable community. These indicators are the foundation for developing an effective, emergency management response plan, post disaster development plan, or any economic development strategy. In short, if we don't know what a resilient community looks like, we can't help communities instill resiliency.
I'm engaged in initiatives that are truly working toward a more resilient Florida, and Gulf of Mexico. Those include regional visioning activities that occur throughout the area that will ensure more sustainable communities in the future. And those initiatives are engaging a wide range of participants, including economic work force developers, ecologists, transportation experts, business and industry representatives, and social service and cultural groups.
We know that more than eighty percent of our infrastructure is owned by the private sector and in small business purposes, the very vast majority of employers in most communities. So it's good news when you're in the private sector and those organizations that work most closely with us are becoming engaged in climate change and all hazards response planning. Public- private partnerships are developing to encourage business to business mentoring and to inspire individual responsibility, and self- sufficiency. Smarter growth planning initiatives, including developing incentives and encouraging development away from the coast, and expanded mass transit, are being promoted.
The work has begun, and we all - yes you - must find your unique way to contribute to this value chain of resiliency. Educate yourself, and those who live nearby and work with you, about community resiliency. Encourage sustainability in the workplace. Get engaged in organizations that inspire community resiliency and conservation of community resources. In conclusion, make sure your voice in heard, by those who have the power to make and implement policies regarding resiliency in your community. People are paying attention. I'm excited to be involved with the Alliance, to be part of a movement much stronger toward stewardship of the Gulf Coast, and I hope you'll join the effort, in little ways and large, to build more sustainable communities throughout the Gulf Region we all call home.
