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Cocoa Beach begins yearlong vulnerability assessment funded by ARPA and state resilience grants
Summary
Consultants presented a citywide vulnerability assessment process funded by American Rescue Plan Act funds and a Florida Department of Environmental Protection resiliency grant; work will map critical assets, run 2050 and 2080 inundation scenarios and produce priorities for capital improvements.
Consultants from GeoSyntec updated the Cocoa Beach City Commission on a citywide vulnerability assessment that the city expects will take about a year to complete and position it to apply for state implementation funding.
The project, funded by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars and a Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) resiliency grant, is building a database of “critical assets” and running coastal flooding and precipitation models to estimate inundation under mid- and long-range scenarios, the consultants said.
The assessment will produce maps and prioritized recommendations the city can use for capital improvement planning and to support future grant requests, Scott Diddy, project manager for GeoSyntec, told the commission. “Whenever we run models, they’re only as good as the data that go into them,” Diddy said, describing the team’s reliance on elevation data and existing records.
GeoSyntec representative Lisa (presenter) said the assessment will model sea-level rise, storm surge and increased precipitation for time horizons roughly centered on 2050 and 2080. “We’re here to talk about the next hundred years with this vulnerability assessment,” she said, and added the work is intended to help the city prioritize where to spend capital-improvement dollars.
City stormwater utility manager Morgan Zuelke told commissioners the city has already led public outreach, including a community workshop and a survey in which 88% of respondents reported experiencing flooding and identified locations on maps. GeoSyntec said resident survey responses will be treated as input to the modeling rather than replaced for engineered elevation data; the consultants said staff will “ground truth” model outputs with local knowledge and elevations.
The DEP-aligned process groups assets into transportation (bridges, evacuation routes, boat launches), critical infrastructure (wastewater and stormwater systems, hazardous facilities), community and emergency facilities (government buildings, fire stations, schools, health facilities) and cultural and natural resources (conservation lands, wetlands). The team reported only limited gaps in the city’s critical-asset inventory — mainly data flagged as sensitive — and said there are no barriers to proceeding.
Next steps include completing the modeling, reviewing results with city staff and producing an adaptation-priorities list that the city can use to pursue additional DEP implementation funds and other grants. The consultants emphasized the assessment’s priority function: ranking assets by inundation to inform financial planning and prioritize projects.
The presentation was informational; no ordinance or funding action was taken during the meeting.
