{"id":214381,"date":"2026-04-01T11:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214381\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T11:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T11:00:09","slug":"three-major-ways-floridas-new-law-will-boost-coastal-resiliency-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214381\/","title":{"rendered":"Three major ways Florida\u2019s new law will boost coastal resiliency"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rachel Rhode,\u00a0Environmental Defense Fund<\/a><\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed\u00a0SB 302: Coastal Resiliency<\/a> into law,\u00a0elevating\u00a0the use of nature-based\u00a0solutions\u00a0and hybrid approaches\u00a0to improve coastal resiliency\u00a0across the state.\u00a0This marks a huge step\u00a0that few\u00a0states\u00a0if any have taken\u00a0and\u00a0marks Florida as a leader in\u00a0addressing resilience statewide with\u00a0long-term\u00a0solutions.<\/p>\n

As extreme weather\u00a0has\u00a0increased\u00a0in\u00a0the past several decades, Florida has\u00a0experienced\u00a0large-scale coastal\u00a0community\u00a0disasters\u00a0from hurricanes, tropical storms and severe\u00a0downpours,\u00a0totaling over $270 billion in the last 10 years.<\/p>\n

Despite the proven effectiveness of\u00a0nature-based\u00a0solutions like\u00a0living shorelines, mangroves\u00a0and\u00a0wetlands\u00a0in\u00a0reducing\u00a0flooding and\u00a0coastal\u00a0damage and\u00a0erosion\u00a0from\u00a0major\u00a0storm\u00a0events,\u00a0they remain\u00a0underutilized\u00a0in resiliency development.\u00a0That lack\u00a0of\u00a0clarity\u00a0and consistency<\/a> in\u00a0the\u00a0development, permitting and implementation\u00a0processes were barriers to implementation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This\u00a0new law\u00a0championed by Environmental Defense Fund and partners, which had full, bipartisan\u00a0support\u00a0among legislators,\u00a0aims to\u00a0address shortcomings and bring nature-based solutions into the mainstream\u00a0by:<\/p>\n

\"MangrovesMangroves planted at Oleta River State Park in North Miami Beach. Mangroves reduce the force of waves, storm surge and flooding. (Richard McNeil, CC BY 3.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n

Standardizing\u00a0nature-based solutions\u00a0design and implementation\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nature-based solutions projects have\u00a0often seemed like one-off \u201cunicorn\u201d projects \u2013 highly tailored to specific local conditions,\u00a0which can make them a challenge to permit, evaluate and replicate.\u00a0Under this\u00a0new\u00a0law, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)\u00a0will\u00a0develop design guidelines and standards to improve project consistency, fast track implementation\u00a0and scalability\u00a0of nature-based resilience solutions.<\/p>\n

It will also clarify\u00a0when and how\u00a0nature-based\u00a0approaches, and green-gray hybrid approaches,\u00a0should be\u00a0applied, making them\u00a0a more routine part of\u00a0standard\u00a0resilience\u00a0practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Establishing\u00a0statewide\u00a0permitting\u00a0for nature-based solutions<\/p>\n

Permitting has been\u00a0one\u00a0of the biggest\u00a0hurdles\u00a0facing\u00a0nature-based\u00a0projects.\u00a0The\u00a0absence\u00a0of\u00a0clear\u00a0standards, along with no consistent approval process,\u00a0has made permitting slow and unpredictable.\u00a0Combined with\u00a0the urgency\u00a0to rebuild after storms, agencies often default to traditional \u201cgray\u201d infrastructure \u2014 even in cases where\u00a0nature-based\u00a0solutions\u00a0or green-gray hybrids could be more cost-effective and equally or more effective.<\/p>\n

With this new law,\u00a0the DEP\u00a0will be required\u00a0to\u00a0establish\u00a0a statewide permitting process\u00a0and procedure\u00a0specifically\u00a0for\u00a0nature-based solutions.\u00a0This\u00a0will establish\u00a0predictability\u00a0and help expedite\u00a0the permitting process\u00a0across jurisdictions.\u00a0The law will also change existing permitting processes that allow failed coastal infrastructure to be replaced with nature-based infrastructure following storm events.<\/p>\n

Improving\u00a0public awareness and support for\u00a0nature-based solutions<\/p>\n

\"RachelRachel Rhode<\/p>\n

Despite\u00a0the\u00a0effectiveness\u00a0of nature-based solutions, their benefits\u00a0to coastal resiliency\u00a0are often not widely known by the public,\u00a0which\u00a0is\u00a0necessary to gain\u00a0robust support\u00a0from citizens.\u00a0A key benefit of this\u00a0law is the requirement that\u00a0DEP and local governments promote public awareness and education of the benefits and value of these solutions, especially during\u00a0the\u00a0rebuilding period.<\/p>\n

Making\u00a0nature-based solutions\u00a0easier\u00a0to implement and scalable across Florida and making them more favorable options in\u00a0line\u00a0with traditional measures\u00a0will make Florida communities safer.\u00a0After years of advocacy, we\u00a0at Environmental Defense Fund are pleased to\u00a0see\u00a0this legislation adopted by the state of Florida and\u00a0look forward to\u00a0helping\u00a0put\u00a0into action.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rachel Rhode is a manager for Environmental Defense Fund\u2019s Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds program in Florida.\u00a0This piece was originally published at https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2026\/03\/26\/three-major-ways-floridas-new-law-will-boost-coastal-resiliency\/<\/a>. Banner image: A team member from Kennedy Space Center in Florida plants mangrove seedling as part of a restoration project to create a living shoreline better able to counter the effects of erosion caused by storm waves and rising sea levels (Glenn Benson\/NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).<\/p>\n

Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here<\/a>. To support The Invading Sea, click here<\/a>to make a donation. If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu<\/a>.\u00a0To learn more about gray-green infrastructure, watch the short video below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Rachel Rhode,\u00a0Environmental Defense Fund Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed\u00a0SB 302: Coastal Resiliency into law,\u00a0elevating\u00a0the use of nature-based\u00a0solutions\u00a0and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[97817,14088,2927,28,30,100,29,97818,4197,94934,412,56779],"class_list":["post-214381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-coastal-resiliency","tag-extreme-weather","tag-flooding","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-legislature","tag-florida-news","tag-living-shorelines","tag-mangroves","tag-nature-based-solutions","tag-ron-desantis","tag-wetlands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}