Can We Project the Health Impacts of Sea Level Rise?

There are a multitude of significant ongoing efforts by universities, local governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) researching the issue of sea-level rise adaptation in Florida. Much of this work focuses on understanding the physical and economic vulnerability, as well as on developing adaptation strategies for the natural and built environments. Within these efforts, there has been very little attention given to the potential impacts of sea-level rise to human health. The National Climate Assessment, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) program, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Climate Change and Human Health program, and other nationally and internationally focused studies identify sea-level rise, human health effects of sea-level rise as a major component of understanding vulnerability and designing adaptation.