TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed an environmental bill to establish a statewide office that will deal with flooding concerns.
HB 7053 creates the Office of Resilience within the Executive Office of the Governor. The resiliency office will review all the state's flood resilience and mitigation efforts and coordinate with federal and local government agencies.
The new law, which takes effect July 1, creates a chief resilience officer position. That person will be appointed by the governor. In the role, they will help identify any gaps in Florida's mitigation activities and work to minimize flood vulnerability for the state's critical assets, in addition to other responsibilities.
The office will examine sea level rise projections and take those into account when planning future projects and programs.
The law will also require the new office to develop an action plan for Florida's highway system. The plan will be based on current data and forecasts. As part of that plan, the office will recommend ways to enhance state infrastructure and retrofit facilities in ways that make them less vulnerable to flooding and sea level rise.
The first resilience action plan under the law will be due to the governor on June 30, 2023. It will also be sent to the leaders of the Florida Legislature.
As previously reported, different parts of Florida could see a sea-level rise of 1-11 feet over the next 100 years.
10 Tampa Bay recently discussed topics like sea level rise as part of our Earth Day Special titled "Our Changing Climate." You can watch it below. You can also download the free 10 Tampa Bay app on your Roku or Fire TV for the latest climate coverage from the 10 Weather team.