April 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 64

NRPA UPDATE
Miami Innovation Lab
By Richard J. Dolesh

I

f you were asked to identify one way that a changing climate was affecting your park and recreation system, what would you pick? Would
it be sea-level rise, drought, coastal and river flooding, extreme heat,
invasive species, ice storms, hurricanes, more frequent and intense thunderstorms or deluge rain events?
The list goes on, but it is a pretty
sure bet that everyone in the field of
parks and recreation has a story to
tell about how a changing climate
is affecting their parks, their workers, their programs and the people
in their community. And, for some,
the shocks and stresses have been
unbelievable - 50 inches of torrential rain within four days in Texas;
blazing wildfires in California that
scorched hundreds of thousands of
acres of land, driving people and
animals before wind-driven flames
in a desperate flight to avoid being

burned to death; daytime temperatures in Arizona over 100 degrees
for three months straight and no
relief at night because the temperature never goes below 90 degrees;
and most recently, catastrophic
spring floods in Nebraska, Iowa
and other Upper-Midwest states.
Weather events and weather patterns come and go, but long-term
changes in climate are starting to
profoundly change our environment. Parks are on the front line
of these changes, and they must
become more resilient to meet the

challenges we all now face.
Making parks more climate resilient was the topic of NRPA's latest Innovation Lab, held January
2019, in Miami in partnership with
the Miami-Dade Parks, Recreation
and Open Spaces department.
NRPA's Innovation Labs have
quickly gained a national reputation for thoughtful treatment of
challenging issues by a gathering
of experts and director-level professionals to do a deep dive on issues
as diverse as the impact of technology and the challenges of dealing
with homelessness in parks.
The two-day lab consisted of
panel presentations, an interactive
workshop on " Parks Leadership
in Climate Adaptation, " tours
of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, visits to Miami-Dade
County's parks that are under the
greatest threats from sea-level rise
and coastal flooding, and a special
tour of the University of Miami's
Rosentiel School of Marine and
Atmospheric Science, where lab
participants had an opportunity
to walk around, over and under
UM's hurricane simulator and see
it cranked up to demonstrate the
impacts of a Category 5 hurricane.
Some 50 participants from
around the country participated in
the Miami Lab, where they heard
expert presenters in the opening
session give a national perspective on the resilience landscape in
America. Amy Chester, managing
At the University of Miami's Rosentiel
School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Innovation Lab participants got to
see UM's hurricane simulator in action.

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Parks & Recreation

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April 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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