A tale of two (Florida) cities: perceptions of flooding risk and adaptation in Tampa’s Hyde Park and Saint Augustine

Sea level rise is not a problem for the future alone. It is already affecting many small to medium cities on the East Coast of the USA. These cities are adapting to their problems without sufficient help from the federal or state government. To escape the perils of short-term reactionary ad hoc measures to deal with such problems, there is a need to utilize longer-term visions and frameworks. One such approach, Adaptation Pathway Planning, requires the involvement of locally affected people. This study looks at the perceptions and preferred adaptation solutions of the residents of St. Augustine and the Hyde Park neighborhood in Tampa, FL, two cities that are already experiencing the worsening flooding effects caused by rising seas. The results show that those living in areas at higher risk, and which are already experiencing frequent tidal flooding, had a greater knowledge of this risk and a higher desire for increased action from multiple levels of government. Also, such people were more aware of what their municipalities were already doing to adapt. Finally, when faced with two different scenarios of the possible rise in sea levels by 2050, those presented with the higher scenarios were more likely to choose a wider range of adaptation countermeasures. All this indicates the need to carefully consider the awareness of residents regarding the effects of sea level rise and how long-term adaptation should be discussed with them.