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Water-resource challenges, encompassing both quality and quantity, pose significant threats to Florida's ecosystems, especially in the face of climate change, rising sea levels, and rapid urbanization. This paper explores the innovative stormwater-management system implemented at Naples Botanical Garden as a model for addressing these challenges. The Garden's approach, treating stormwater as a valuable resource, involves dry and wet retention areas, created lakes, and a unique River of Grass, mimicking natural ecosystems. This system not only mitigates flooding, but also effectively removes pollutants, recharges the aquifer, and provides a habitat for diverse wildlife. The paper emphasizes the economic, environmental, and social impacts of traditional stormwater-management practices in Florida. Naples Botanical Garden's case serves as a guide for botanical gardens and zoos globally, showcasing the pivotal role these institutions can play in sustainable water-resource management. The collaborative design process involving landscape architects, engineers, and horticulturists ensures a holistic and aesthetically pleasing approach to stormwater management. The paper underscores the role of botanical gardens in promoting nature-based solutions, educating the public, and offering tangible steps for implementing similar systems worldwide. It can help guide regional adaptation strategies to manage stormwater as a resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tick Island Incised (TII) is a relatively rare variety of Late Archaic fiber-tempered pottery found across sections of central and northern peninsular Florida. The striking stylistic divergences of TII from other Orange pottery types have led multiple researchers to invoke foreign influences or migrations to account for its appearance. This paper presents newly collected data on TII vessels from the Silver Glen complex (8LA1/8MR123) and related sites along the St. Johns River and northern Gulf Coast. These data, which represent the most detailed information yet collected on the technology, style, composition, and spatiotemporal distribution of TII pottery, are used to address numerous published speculations regarding the type's timing, origin, and cultural meaning. This research supports the idea that TII's aberrant style, which features symbolically powerful sinistral or left-opening spirals, can be explained as an example of skeuomorphism linked to preexisting lightning whelk shell cups. It further indicates that TII appeared during a particularly volatile time during the Late Archaic period and that its use and deposition in ritualized contexts may have been part of a deliberate effort to intervene in ongoing historical processes and mediate their impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is divided into three parts. First, we analyze data from the 2016-2020 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau to assess the demographic structure of Florida families. We find differences between Florida and other parts of the United States. These differences are the result of trends and patterns in migration to, from and within the state. Second, we examine the role that disasters in general and hurricanes in particular play in the family life of Floridians. Third, we review the literature to assess how responses to the COVID-19 pandemic influenced family life and the migration of families into, out of, and within Florida. This paper highlights the dramatic changes that have occurred in family life in Florida. The implications of these trends are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1985, Florida established a groundbreaking approach to growth management and intergovernmental relations, which the state's 2011 Community Planning Act is widely described as ending. This paper presents a history and institutional analysis of policy changes for the State's core consistency doctrine. It concludes that the CPA did not end growth management since Florida retains the mandate for local planning consistent with state growth management criteria and subject to state review. However, it does formalize diminished state authority over local planning. Florida's current institutional arrangement for planning involves an assertive state rule-making stance, but shifts planning responsibility to local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marronage was an extreme form of anti-slavery resistance in the Americas, however, we should not isolate Maroons from others fighting to maintain autonomy in the colonial Americas. This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of three Florida sites – Bulow Plantation, an urban plantation in St. Augustine, and the Maroon settlement of Pilaklikaha – through the dual frameworks of resistance and ethnogenesis, with the purpose of placing Maroons within a regional context. Ultimately, the archaeological materials examined highlight the common experiences shared by Maroons and their enslaved peers, and emphasize the significant role played by opportunity in shaping African diasporic cultural transformations in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insurance-linked securitization (ILS) plays an increasingly important role in the protection of valuable real estate markets from devaluation due to climate risk. This paper critically investigates ILS in the Florida context, where billions of dollars of residential hurricane wind exposure are securitized on behalf of re/insurers and institutional investors each year. Building on Harvey's seminal concept of the spatial fix, it is argued that ILS represents a real estate risk fix. ILS transforms uncertain property catastrophe exposures into a liquid asset class, and in doing so turns institutional investor funds into re/insurance capacity for capital-hungry 'peak peril' re/insurers. Securitization helps to sustain the circulation of capital through risky built environments by absorbing the catastrophe exposures of mortgages and other forms of property-linked finance. In this way, ILS provides a fix for the Harveyian spatial fix, one which momentarily offsets growing environmental barriers to property-led accumulation. The paper shows how specific modes of urbanization and property finance, waves of 'natural' catastrophe, patterns of public and private institutional intervention, transnational flows of risk capital, and the creation of new market-making devices have constituted ILS as a provisional (if extractive) fix. To this end, the paper furthers our conceptual and empirical understandings of the operation of ILS and re/insurance at specific urban conjunctures, while also highlighting key dilemmas associated with securing the real estate-finance system from climate risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precipitation is one of the many important natural factors impacting agriculture and natural resource management. Although statistics have been applied to investigate the non-stationary trend and the unpredictable variances of precipitation under climate change, existing methods usually lack a sound physical basis that can be generally applied in any location and at any time for future extrapolation, especially in tropical areas. Physically, the formation of precipitation is a result of ascending air which reduces air pressure and condenses moisture into drops, either by irregular terrain or atmospheric phenomena (e.g., via frontal lifting). Thus, in this paper, pressure change events (PCEs) will be used as a physical indicator of the stability of atmospheric systems to reveal the impact of temperature on precipitation in the tropical areas of Florida. By using data from both national and regional weather observation networks, this study segments the continuous observation series into PCE sequences for further analysis divided by dry and wet seasons. The results reveal that the frequency and intensity of PCE are highly associated with the occurrences of weather events. Decreasing pressure favors precipitation, and may turn extreme when the temperature and air moisture are sufficient to fuel the process. With similar intensity, decreasing pressure change events (DePCEs) generally bear a higher probability of precipitation (POP) and precipitation depth (PD) than increasing pressure change events (InPCEs). The frequency of alternating between InPCEs and DePCEs is subject to the temperature of the season and climate. Due to the seasonal fluctuations of weather characteristics, such as temperature and relative humidity, the dependence of extreme precipitation on these characteristics can be interpreted via PCE. A 7% increase rate of precipitation vs. temperature rise, determined by the Clausius—Clapeyron (C—C) relationship, can be observed from extreme precipitation with variances in the season and PCE types. Although indicated by other research, active vertical movement of air caused by a phase change in water at the frozen point is not pronounced in Florida. The response patterns of humidity to precipitation also vary by season and PCE types in extreme conditions. In summary, PCEs demonstrate reliable physical evidence of precipitation formation and can better associate the occurrence and intensity of extreme weather with other characteristics. In turn, such associations embody the underlying physical concepts present at any location in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the spring of 2006 wild flamingos returned to Florida, though not to the places their kind had inhabited 100 years and more ago at the southern edge of the Everglades and the Florida Keys. Instead this group of flamingos alighted 80 miles northward in Palm Beach County's Stormwater Treatment Area 2 (STA-2), a human-made facility for filtering anthropogenic pollutants from storm runoff. This paper takes the return of wild flamingos to Florida as a case for thinking through haunting, ruination and encounters in what I call 'the ordinary Anthropocene': the ongoing, everyday more-than-human relationships, actions and less-than-planetary assemblages through which the Anthropocene is sensed and lived. After setting out a case for thinking with haunting, ruination and encounter as a way of making sense in the ordinary Anthropocene, I trace three interwoven narrative threads that unspool from the encounter with the STA-2 flamingos: First, I trace the transfiguration of living wild flamingos into idealised symbols of tropical dreamworlds over the 20th century. This leads me sideways to the present-absence of flamingos in the mid-century writings of Rachel Carson and through her backwards to John J. Audubon and the genocidal ruinations of the 19th century as they flicker in the margins of his ornithological writings. I end by returning to the present, to the encounter with STA-2 flamingos in the ongoing moment of living with others in the late capitalist ecologies of south Florida. The conclusion considers what might be taken forward, into the uncertain future, from this telling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American Southeast saw the development of large ceremonial village centers, the coalescence of households, and monumental architecture integrated into village layout during the Middle Woodland period (ca. AD 1–600). These shifts toward more sedentary lifeways occurred independently of, and prior to, the domestication of plants across the Southeast. This paper examines the seasonality of monumental construction at the Garden Patch site located on the central Gulf Coast of Florida. This site contains evidence for rapid mound construction that followed a predetermined site plan. Here, we present oxygen isotope analyses of archaeological mollusk shells (Crassostrea virginica) to evaluate the seasonality and periodicity of monument construction. We conclude that mound construction occurred during the cooler months of the year. Ultimately, this contributes to an anthropological understanding of the development of these early ceremonial centers in the Southeast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observational analysis and climate modeling efforts concur that the frequency, intensity, and duration of heatwaves will increase as the Earth's mean climate shifts towards warmer temperatures. While the impacts and mechanisms of heatwaves have been well explored, extreme temperatures over Florida are generally understudied. This paper sheds light on Floridian heatwaves by exploring 13 years of daily data from surface observations and high-resolution WRF climate simulations for the same timeframe. The characteristics of the current and future heatwaves under the RCP8.5 high emissions scenario for 2070-2099 were then investigated. Results show a tripling in the frequency, and greater than a sixfold increase in the mean duration of heatwaves over Florida when the current standard of heatwaves was used. The intensity of heatwaves also increased by 4-6 °C due to the combined effects of rising mean temperatures and a 1-2 °C increase attributed to the flattening of the temperature distribution. Since Florida's atmospheric boundary layer is rich in moisture and heatwaves could further increase the moisture content in the lower troposphere, the relationship between heatwaves and extreme precipitation was also explored in both the current and future climate. As expected, rainfall during a heatwave event was anomalously low, but it quickly recovered to normal within 3 days after the passage of a heatwave. Finally, the late 21st-century climate could witness a slight decrease in the mean precipitation over Florida, accompanied by heavier heatwave-associated extreme precipitation events over central and southern Florida. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews a peer-to-peer energy market for prosumers of a regulated utility. Utilities pay retail prices to prosumers regardless of demand, forcing utilities to pass the cost of distribution to other consumers. As prosumers grow in numbers, utilities need a better compensation method. A real-time peer-to-peer energy market application may provide higher incentives. Utilities adopt the service because it would allow for compensation of overhead. By including the utility, a micro-grid is not needed for a peer-to-peer market. The prosumer community can be virtual. The proposed implementation can become an intermediary step to decentralized energy markets. The application shall leverage the real-time demand of consumers and adjust payment instantly to prosumers that can meet that demand. A shared cloud account can allow the community to manage the application and create transparency and trust. • A fully decentralized peer-to-peer energy market can replace net-metering. • The NRG-X-Change algorithm is simulated for small and large markets. • We simulate prosumers exploiting the system using cooperative game theory. • Data is based on real-world conditions for prosumers in Florida during 21′-22′. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of Florida is karstic as a result of the dissolution of limestone. The dissolution processes are slow and usually imperceptible in terms of a human lifespan. Even so, Florida experiences numerous sinkhole events every year. These depressions in the land surface form as a result of migration or collapse of overlying sediments into pre-existing voids developed as a result of limestone dissolution. This paper discusses the causes of these sinkhole features in the context of Florida’s development and water use over the last few decades. Many of these cover-collapse sinkholes form as a result of human and natural perturbations in Florida’s groundwater and recharge events. The two most obvious causative factors for sinkhole development are groundwater withdrawals, and loading of the land surface and surficial aquifer with water during extreme rainfall events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to being the main source of water supply, groundwater in Florida is the primary source of recharge to the state’s many springs. This paper describes four regulatory mechanisms for addressing groundwater quality and quantity concerns: Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs), Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs) and MFLs recovery and prevention strategies. TMDLs are water quality restoration targets for impaired water bodies where water quality standards are not met. Most TMDLs for the state’s springs address excessive nitrate concentrations. Nine BMAPs, which are plans developed to address and restore impaired waters, are completed or under development for impaired springs. More than 370 MFLs, which represent the limit at which further water withdrawals would be significantly harmful to the water resources or ecology of the area, have been established. Few MFLs have been developed explicitly for groundwater systems, although many developed for surface waters, including springs, implicitly address groundwater protection. Recovery and prevention strategies are being developed and implemented to ensure MFLs are met. In combination with other regulatory mechanisms such as water-use permitting and water-supply planning, use of TMDLs, BMAPS, MFLs and recovery/prevention strategies supports protection of Florida’s groundwater resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the latter half of the twentieth century Florida was noted as a preferred destination for interstate migrants. However, during 2008–09, Florida had a net loss of 31,000 interstate migrants. This loss of interstate migrants followed the economic recession and housing collapse of 2007–08. This paper explores the effect of the housing collapse on in-, out-, and net interstate migration for the counties of Florida for 2008–09 and 2013–14 using the Internal Revenue Service Migration Files. Ordinary Least Squares Regression was applied to determine the variables that affected interstate in-, out-, and net migration for the two time periods. Net migration rates revealed that counties with the greatest housing value declines and the greatest loss in employment lost migrants during 2008–09. This loss could be attributed to the out-migration of interstate migrants from counties experiencing the housing crisis and the reluctance of interstate migrants to select counties that experienced the brunt of housing collapse. For 2013–14, the highest net migration rates accrued to counties experiencing the lowest housing value increases. This suggests that in the case of Florida, net migration favors counties that are less likely to experience rapid increases (as in 2013–14) and rapid decreases (2008–09) in housing values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, Florida ranks second among states for both value and land area of vegetable production, but this production is affected by periodic droughts. Florida has experienced at least one severe and widespread drought every decade since 1900, and climate change projections show that meteorological droughts will occur more often in the future. While drought and climate change affect the supply side, population growth is expected to affect the demand side of water availability. Given these threats to future water availability, the adoption of drought adaptation and water conservation measures is of increasing importance in Florida. Using a 2013 survey of Florida vegetable growers, this paper addresses two main components of this problem. First, we assess the current rates of adoption of drought adaptation measures. Second, we analyze which factors influence or impede the adoption of these measures to provide policy recommendations to increase adoption in the future. We find low rates of adoption of adaptations, ranging from 13% to 55%, and factors determining who adopts a given adaptation vary by adaptation. Factors can have opposite effects on the probability of adoption across different adaptations. Unlike most previous work, we find that growers with more education have lower rates of adoption of water augmentation measures, and lack of land ownership does not necessarily impede adoption of adaptations with large initial investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Presents steps to collect Twitter data for modeling hurricane evacuation behavior. • Develops a model to extract evacuation contexts from Twitter data. • Develops a hidden Markov model from the sequences generated from user tweets. • Presents results and insights on the dynamics of evacuation behavior. • Results can be used in future evacuation related transportation studies. Evacuations play a critical role in saving human lives during hurricanes. But individual evacuation decision-making is a complex dynamic process, often studied using post-hurricane survey data. Alternatively, ubiquitous use of social media generates a massive amount of data that can be used to predict evacuation behavior in real time. In this paper, we present a method to infer individual evacuation behaviors (e.g., evacuation decision, timing, destination) from social media data. We develop an input output hidden Markov model (IO-HMM) to infer evacuation decisions from user tweets. To extract the underlying evacuation context from tweets, we first estimate a word2vec model from a corpus of more than 100 million tweets collected over four major hurricanes. Using input variables such as evacuation context, time to landfall, type of evacuation order, and the distance from home, the proposed model infers what activities are made by individuals, when they decide to evacuate, and where they evacuate to. To validate our results, we have created a labeled dataset from 38,256 tweets posted between September 2, 2017 and September 19, 2017 by 2,571 users from Florida during hurricane Irma. Our findings show that the proposed IO-HMM method can be useful for inferring evacuation behavior in real time from social media data. Since traditional surveys are infrequent, costly, and often performed at a post-hurricane period, the proposed approach can be very useful for predicting evacuation demand as a hurricane unfolds in real time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Acute Respiratory tract infections (ARI) are infections involving the upper respiratory tract. Most ARIs are viral in nature and self-limited in which most of the times antibiotic treatment is unnecessary. A recent VA medication utilization evaluation conducted in 28 medical centers identified high rates of unnecessary antibiotic prescribing for ARI. Based on these analyses the VA National Academic Detailing Service (VANADS) created the ARI campaign, providing materials for VA systems to employ as the seek to improve ARI management. Our project consists of implementation of the ARI Campaign in a South Florida Veteran Affairs HealthCare System (Miami VAHS). Methods We utilized VANADS resources for our campaign. Activities included assessing ARI prescribing patterns, garnering stakeholder support, identifying pharmacist and physician champions, providing targeted academic detailing, handing out provider ARI guidance documents (in paper and electronically), disseminating provider-specific feedback with peer comparison, order-set development with advertisement, promoting appropriate coding, and reporting to the Miami VAHS antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) subcommittee. Campaign activities were initiated in October 2017. The ARI Campaign was selected as the priority item for FY-2019, from our annual ASP risk assessment with a goal of reducing antibiotic prescribing for ARI diagnosis to below 40%. We present the data up to March 2019. Results Baseline data from October 2015 through September 2017 revealed an antibiotic was prescribed to 1,651 of 2,843 (58%) encounters in which an ARI diagnosis was made in our system. In the months following ARI Campaign initiation, a decline in antibiotic prescribing for ARI diagnosis was found. In the most recent quarter (January–March 2019), the prescribing rate was 39%. Figure 1 shows system-wide vs. Florida region prescribing rates. Table 1 provides data by major site and for the top 10 priority providers we identified. Conclusion Implementation of a multifaceted ARI Campaign at a single-center resulted in a substantial reduction in antibiotic prescriptions. Future work is warranted investigating which activities are most impactful for reducing unnecessary antibiotic prescribing for ARI. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]