In 2011, the Florida Sea Grant Coastal Planning Program began working with the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council and City of Satellite Beach. This cooperation helped the region receive grants from state and federal partners to address issues related to rising seas and flooding. Projects provided mapping and vulnerability information to Satellite Beach as it led the way, with Florida Sea Grant, NOAA, FEMA and other partners, in developing regional climate change and sea level rise programming and projects. Florida Sea Grant developed innovative policy language, which was adopted by Satellite Beach and is now used as a model tool by regional planning partners, resulting in adopted policy language for nine additional communities. Additionally, the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, with Florida Sea Grant representatives on the steering committee, created the East Central Florida Regional Resilience Collaborative. Twenty-seven local governments joined the collaborative and its Regional Resilience Plan, creating one of Florida’s most active regional collaborations on resilience.
