Regional Climate Change Adaptation Policy Network in Southeast Florida

Climate change poses uncertain, complex, and emerging risks to local governments across the country, particularly in regions prone to flood and storm hazards. While local governments recognize the importance of finding innovative approaches to climate change adaptation, it remains a challenge for many reasons, including the high cost of policy experimentation, lack of organizational capacity, and uncertainty about the efficacy of potential adaptation strategies. These are not merely challenges of technological innovation, but also of social and policy innovation. It is increasingly recognized that collaboration is required to meet these challenges. Collaborations of various types—referred to broadly as policy networks—give organizations access to information, ideas, and other resources that may be used to adapt to climate change. Certain types of networks are hypothesized to be effective for these purposes, particularly networks that span fragmented communities and integrate different knowledge systems an...