Clearwater releases findings from citywide Vulnerability Assessment, impact of heat and flooding

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The City of Clearwater released its findings in a citywide Vulnerability Assessment on Wednesday afternoon.

City staff and members of the community visited the Main Library to learn more about it. The firm AtkinsRéalis was hired to conduct the study 1.5 years ago.

It was paid for by grant funding to look at the impacts of factors like extreme heat and flooding to use as a tool for the city to apply for future project grants.

"The tool and some of the plans we have allow the city to look citywide at scenarios as well as different geographies," said Chris Zambito Project Manager at Atkins Realis said. "We look at certain watersheds, barrier islands, Tampa Bay. It’s a flexible tool."

The assessment analyzes future return-on-Investments.

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"Do we want to look at areas of social vulnerability, areas where there’s new economic investment going in, run the tool and see what the benefits are to them," he said. "It’s looking at flooding, it’s looking at heat impacts, these are all things the citizens have been talking about, and we want to make sure they have a plan to deal with it."

Bryan Beckman with the Pinellas Sierra Club came out to learn what the assessment uncovered regarding heat impacts.

"We certainly see so many different weather events affecting us and the city has a great environmental plan that’s called Green 2.0 that tries to address some of the causal factors as to why we have more extreme weather events," he said. "Very interested to see how the report is coming out and also how we as a community can react and support it."

Trisha Kirby attended to advocate for more tree plantings.

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"I’m speaking up for the trees that we already have that already provide a significant tree cover that provide shade and heat reduction," shared Kirby.

To learn more about the Vulnerability Assessment, click here.

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