Dissertations / Theses: 'Hurricanes in Florida'

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Muhs, Tammy Marie Poitras. "Modeling mass care resource provision post hurricane." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2011. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4810.

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Determining the amount of resources needed, specifically food and water, following a hurricane is not a straightforward task. Through this research effort, an estimating tool was developed that takes into account key demographic and evacuation behavioral effects, as well as hurricane storm specifics to estimate the number of meals required for the first fourteen days following a hurricane making landfall in the State of Florida. The Excel based estimating tool was created using data collected from four hurricanes making landfall in Florida during 2004-2005. The underlying model used in the tool is a Regression Decision Tree with predictor variables including direct impact, poverty level, and hurricane impact score. The hurricane impact score is a hurricane classification system resulting from this research that includes hurricane category, intensity, wind field size, and landfall location. The direct path of a hurricane, a higher than average proportion of residents below the poverty level, and the hurricane impact score were all found to have an effect on the number of meals required during the first fourteen days following a hurricane making landfall in the State of Florida.
ID: 030646208; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-171).
Ph.D.
Doctorate
Psychology
Sciences
Modeling and Simulation

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2

D'andrea, Joy Marie. "A Statistical Analysis of Hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin and Sinkholes in Florida." Scholar Commons, 2016. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6077.

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Beaches can provide a natural barrier between the ocean and inland communities, ecosystems, and resources. These environments can move and change in response to winds, waves, and currents. When a hurricane occurs, these changes can be rather large and possibly catastrophic. The high waves and storm surge act together to erode beaches and inundate low-lying lands, putting inland communities at risk. There are thousands of buoys in the Atlantic Basin that record and update data to help predict climate conditions in the state of Florida. The data that was compiled and used into a larger data set came from two different sources. First, the hurricane data for the years 1992 – 2014 came from Unisys Weather site (Atlantic Basin Hurricanes data, last 40 years) and the buoy data has been available from the national buoy center. Using various statistical methods, we will analyze the probability of a storm being present, given conditions at the buoy; determine the probability of a storm being present categorically. There are four different types of sinkholes that exist in Florida and they are: Collapse Sinkholes, Solution Sinkholes, Alluvial Sinkholes, and Raveling Sinkholes. In Florida there are sinkholes that occur, because of the different soil types that are prevalent in certain areas. The data that was used in this study came from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Subsidence Incident Reports. The size of the data was 926 with 15 variables. We will present a statistical analysis of a sinkholes length and width relationship, determine the average size of the diameter of a sinkhole, discuss the relationship of sinkhole size depending upon their soil types, and acknowledge the best probable occurrence of when a sinkhole occurs. There will be five research chapters in this dissertation. In Chapter 2, the concept of Exploratory Factor Analysis and Non-Response Analysis will be introduced, in accordance of analyzing hurricanes. Chapter 3 will also address the topic of hurricanes that have formed from the Atlantic Basin from 1992 – 2014. The discussion of the probability of a storm being present (also categorically) will be addressed. In Chapter 4 a study of sinkholes in Florida will be addressed. In Chapter 5 we will continue our discussion on sinkholes in Florida, but focus on the time to event between the occurrences of the sinkholes. In the last chapter, Chapter 6, we will conclude with a future works and projects that can be created from the foundations of this dissertation.

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3

Robertson, William. "Airborne Laser Quantification of Florida Shoreline and Beach Volume Change Caused by Hurricanes." FIU Digital Commons, 2007. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/35.

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This dissertation combines three separate studies that measure coastal change using airborne laser data. The initial study develops a method for measuring subaerial and subaqueous volume change incrementally alongshore, and compares those measurements to shoreline change in order to quantify their relationship in Palm Beach County, Florida. A poor correlation (R2 = 0.39) was found between shoreline and volume change before the hurricane season in the northern section of Palm Beach County because of beach nourishment and inlet dynamics. However, a relatively high R2 value of 0.78 in the southern section of Palm Beach County was found due to little disturbance from tidal inlets and coastal engineering projects. The shoreline and volume change caused by the 2004 hurricane season was poorly correlated with R2 values of 0.02 and 0.42 for the north and south sections, respectively. The second study uses airborne laser data to investigate if there is a significant relationship between shoreline migration before and after Hurricane Ivan near Panama City, Florida. In addition, the relationship between shoreline change and subaerial volume was quantified and a new method for quantifying subaqueous sediment change was developed. No significant spatial relationship was found between shoreline migration before and after the hurricane. Utilization of a single coefficient to represent all relationships between shoreline and subaerial volume change was found to be problematic due to the spatial variability in the linear relationship. Differences in bathymetric data show only a small portion of sediment was transported beyond the active zone and most sediment remained within the active zone despite the occurrence of a hurricane. The third study uses airborne laser bathymetry to measure the offshore limit of change, and compares that location with calculated depth of closures and subaqueous geomorphology. There appears to be strong geologic control of the depth of closure in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. North of Hillsboro Inlet, hydrodynamics control the geomorphology which in turn indicates the location of the depth of closure.

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4

D'Andrea, Joy. "A Statistical Analysis of Hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin & Sinkholes in Florida." Thesis, University of South Florida, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10103862.

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Beaches can provide a natural barrier between the ocean and inland communities, ecosystems, and resources. These environments can move and change in response to winds, waves, and currents. When a hurricane occurs, these changes can be rather large and possibly catastrophic. The high waves and storm surge act together to erode beaches and inundate low-lying lands, putting inland communities at risk. There are thousands of buoys in the Atlantic Basin that record and update data to help predict climate conditions in the state of Florida. The data that was compiled and used into a larger data set came from two different sources. First, the hurricane data for the years 1992–2014 came from Unisys Weather site (Atlantic Basin Hurricanes data, last 40 years) and the buoy data has been available from the national buoy center. Using various statistical methods, we will analyze the probability of a storm being present, given conditions at the buoy; determine the probability of a storm being present categorically. There are four different types of sinkholes that exist in Florida and they are: Collapse Sinkholes, Solution Sinkholes, Alluvial Sinkholes, and Raveling Sinkholes. In Florida there are sinkholes that occur, because of the different soil types that are prevalent in certain areas. The data that was used in this study came from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Subsidence Incident Reports. The size of the data was 926 with 15 variables. We will present a statistical analysis of a sinkholes length and width relationship, determine the average size of the diameter of a sinkhole, discuss the relationship of sinkhole size depending upon their soil types, and acknowledge the best probable occurrence of when a sinkhole occurs. There will be five research chapters in this dissertation. In Chapter 2, the concept of Exploratory Factor Analysis and Non-Response Analysis will be introduced, in accordance of analyzing hurricanes. Chapter 3 will also address the topic of hurricanes that have formed from the Atlantic Basin from 1992–2014. The discussion of the probability of a storm being present (also categorically) will be addressed. In Chapter 4 a study of sinkholes in Florida will be addressed. In Chapter 5 we will continue our discussion on sinkholes in Florida, but focus on the time to event between the occurrences of the sinkholes. In the last chapter, Chapter 6, we will conclude with a future works and projects that can be created from the foundations of this dissertation.

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5

Zhao, Ruoshu. "Comparison of Beach Changes Induced by Two Hurricanes along the Coast of West-Central Florida." Scholar Commons, 2018. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7388.

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The beach profiles pre-and post-the Hurricane Hermine (2016) and Irma (2017) along the Sand Key barrier island were collected to quantify longshore variations in storm induced beach changes as well as to compare the beach changes caused by hydrodynamic conditions of the two different hurricanes. Cross-shore beach profile are examined in 4 sections including dune field, dry beach, sand bar and whole beach to calculate beach change. The volume change for each section and shoreline contour change before and post the hurricane was computed. Hydrodynamic conditions were obtained from adjacent NOAA’s tide and wave gauges. Both hurricanes generated high offshore waves, with Hurricane Hermine generated waves mostly from southwest, and Irma generated waves dominantly from northeast. Hurricane Hermine generated a storm surge of up to 1 m. While hurricane Irma generated negative surge of -1.1 m. Several beach profile parameters such as the foreshore slope, as well as volume changes of dune field, dry beach and sand bar induced by the two hurricanes were computed. Under both storms, the foreshore slope became steeper after the storm north of the headland, while the foreshore slope became gentler south of the headland. Storm surge plays an important role in inducing beach erosion. Hurricane Hermine with 1 m surge caused significant dune erosion in terms of dune volume loss and dune line retreat. On the other hand, hurricane Irma with negative surge only caused minor dune erosion. Sand bar moved seaward during both hurricanes, with Irma induced a much greater offshore movement than that of Hermine. In addition, the sand bar height decreased significantly during Irma. In contrast, during Hermine the sand bar height remained largely similar before and after the storm. Large alongshore variations in beach erosion was observed during both hurricanes as influenced by background erosion rate and direction of incident waves as they approaching the curved shoreline. For both storms, the erosional hot spot at North Sand Key with the highest background erosion rate suffered the most sand loss over the entire profile. More sand was eroded from the dry beach along the broad headland than along the beaches both north and south of it. Corresponding to the higher volume of dry beach erosion, shoreline retreat was also the largest around the headland. During Hurricane Hermine, the headland sheltering of the southerly approaching waves resulted in more erosion to the south than to the north. The opposite happened during Hurricane Irma with northerly approaching wave. More erosion occurred to the north of the headland than that to the south. Systematic measurement of beach profile beach and after hurricanes can improve our understanding on beach morphodynamics on storm induced beach changes.

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Flott, Phyllis (Phyllis L. ). "An Analysis of the Determinants of Recovery of Businesses After a Natural Disaster Using a Multi-Paradigm Approach." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1996. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc935766/.

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This study examines the recovery process of businesses in Homestead, Florida after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The goal of this study was to determine which organizational characteristics were useful in predicting the level of physical damage and the length of time to reopen for affected businesses. The organizational characteristics examined were age, size, pre-disaster gross sales, ownership of the business location, membership in the Chamber of Commerce, and property insurance. Three-hundred and fifty businesses in the area were surveyed. Because of the complexity of the recovery process, the disaster experiences of businesses were examined using three paradigms, organizational ecology, contingency theory, and configuration theory. Models were developed and tested for each paradigm. The models used the contextual variables to explain the outcome variables; level of physical damage and length of time to reopen. The SIC was modified so that it could form the framework for a taxonomic examination of the businesses. The organizations were examined at the level of division, class, subclass, and order. While the taxa and consistent levels of physical damage, the length of time needed to reopen varied greatly. The homogeneous level of damage within the groups is linked to similarity in assets and transformation processes. When examined using the contingency perspective, there were no significant relationships between the level of physical damage and the contextual variables. Only predisaster gross sales and level of physical damage had moderate strength associations with the length of time to reopen. The configuration perspective was applied by identifying clusters of organizations using the contextual variables. Clusters were identified and examined to determine if they had significantly different disaster experiences. The clusters varied significantly only by the length of time to reopen. The disaster experience of businesses is conceptualized as a process of accumulation-deaccumulation-reaccumulation. The level of physical damage is driven by selection while the lenght of time to reopen is determined by both adaptation and selection.

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Vanlandingham, Keith Marcel. "Disaster Preparedness in Escambia County Florida: The Influence of Oral Narratives." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2018. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1404515/.

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This work addresses hurricane preparedness in Escambia County, Florida. It explores preparing for hurricanes as an informal learning process occurring within personal networks and embedded in beliefs, values, and attitudes. Findings reveal that participants learned to prepare from their parents in childhood and improved upon that knowledge through direct experience in adulthood. Later, they passed this knowledge on to their children as well as co-workers. These preparations are embedded in beliefs of self-determination and attitudes of endurance. However, this body of knowledge and their respective practices are not equally accessible to all. Recommendations are provided so local organizations can incorporate local knowledge and practices with preparedness improvement efforts and foster social cohesion as well.

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Sajadi, Bami Fautemeh. "Water Scarcity in the Face of Hurricanes: Improving the Resilience of Potable Water Supplies in Selected Florida Counties." Scholar Commons, 2019. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7923.

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Severe storms can threaten the reliability and accessibility of drinking water supplies. The state of Florida is frequently impacted by hurricanes and is often struck more than once a year. An example of this can be found in 2017 when hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria caused much damage. Compromised utilities, well contamination, and shortages in bottled water and ice are just some of the problems that may threaten peoples’ drinking water. Faced with these issues, preparation and response efforts must be effective in order to promote human health. Recent events like Hurricane Irma caused shortages in potable water which suggest the need for improvements in these efforts. The purpose of this study was to review management policies (for both preparations and responses) in dealing with potable water paucity caused by Hurricane Irma. Current efforts for managing potable water supplies were researched across selected counties in Florida. The effectiveness and deficiencies of these policies were analyzed. A survey was utilized to gain an understanding of the effects of these policies from the people’s perspective. This study determined several issues with potable water management efforts in dealing with severe storms. These issues were: 1) Economic constraints preventing the obtainment of drinking water (particularly for the Hispanic ethnic group), 2) Lack of concern/care in keeping sanitary private well systems, 3) Policies to encourage locals to prepare to last three days without regular water supplies were inadequate since many people were left without water for far longer time periods, 4) Younger respondents experienced greater potable water shortages than the elderly, and 5) Many people who received emergency relief did not actually require aid. This study also identified potential improvements in both the short-term (emergency responses) and long-term (preparedness) management of drinking water in the face of hurricanes. Recommendations were made to address each of the found issues and ameliorate the management of potable water. These recommendations were: 1) To promote enforcement of anti-price gouging laws 2) Enhancing education on the importance of a sanitary well system. 3) Enhancing infrastructure and power by increasing redundancy, storage capacity, structural integrity, backup power and structural stability; and/or promote education informing locals to prepare for water shortages that last longer than three days 4) Encouraging younger residents to be more involved with their community elders 5) Relief efforts should be made more effective in reaching their targeted populations (those in true need of aid). The results of this research may be used to enhance potable water management plans to avoid suffering and loss of wellbeing in future hurricanes.

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Rios, Adyan Beatriz. "Do hurricanes and other severe weather events affect catch per unit effort of reef-fish in the Florida Keys?" Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/32885.

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Severe weather events frequently affect important marine fish stocks and fisheries along the United States Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. However, the effects of these events on fish and fisheries are not well understood. The availability of self-reported data from two fisheries in a region frequently affected by tropical cyclones provided a unique opportunity to investigate short-term responses to past events. This study involved selecting severe weather events, calculating changes in effort and catch-per-unit- effort (CPUE), and analyzing those changes across various temporal, spatial, and species-specific scenarios. Responses in each variable were analyzed within and across scenario factors and explored for correlations and linear multivariate relationships with hypothesized explanatory variables. A negative overall directional change was identified for logbook fishing effort. Based on both correlations and linear models, changes in logbook fishing effort were inversely related to changes in average maximum wind speed. Severe weather events are more likely to affect fishing effort than catch rates of reef-fish species. However, lack of responses in CPUE may also relate to the ability of this study to detect changes. The temporal and spatial scales analyzed in this study may not have been adequate for identifying changes in effort for the headboat fishery, or in CPUE for either fishery. Although there was no region-wide response in CPUE associated with severe weather events, further research on this topic is necessary to determine if storm-induced changes in fishery data are likely strong, long-lasting, or widespread enough to influence the outcome of stock-wide assessments.
Master of Science

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Stripling, Caitlin. "A Hurricane Specific Risk Assessment of the United States' Gulf Coast Counties." The Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1478090258882176.

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Kay, Shannon A. "Factors Affecting Storm Characteristics in the Battery and Vicinity." UNF Digital Commons, 2014. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/492.

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Tropical cyclones (TCs) Irene and Sandy caused major damages in back to back years to the most densely populated city in the United States stunning the residents with storms linked to seemingly impossible probabilities. Such activity has raised questions about the effect of non-stationary aspects within atmospheric circulation on storm behavior and some assumptions inherent in previous hazard studies of the New York City (NYC) area. This study analyzes statistical aspects of hazard quantification for this area related to this non-stationarity and statistical characterization. In particular this study investigates the presence of multiple populations of storms, it also tests current assumptions inherent in these previous studies which produce surge hazards which differ significantly and it investigates a natural relationship between storm characteristics and large scale climate variations through Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOF) of the sea surface pressure. The findings of this study show that there is a statistically significant influence of climate variability on storm frequency, intensity and direction within the Battery and vicinity (BAV, Battery Park and surrounding region). Variations in large-scale atmospheric pressure patterns as well as sea surface temperature appear to be significantly affecting the surge hazard for this region. This study also shows there is a statistically significant relationship between storm heading and intensity as well as the presence of multiple populations of storms driven by different atmospheric states that behave with alternate characteristics. These multiple populations appear to be significantly influencing the overall average of storm behavior causing inaccurate assumptions in hazard quantification which leads to misestimation in risks.

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Wilson, Monica. "Effects of extreme events on residual circulation for Tampa Bay, Florida." [Tampa, Fla] : University of South Florida, 2007. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0001888.

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Begley, David Douglas. "Weathering the Storm: Hurricane Resiliency in the Florida Keys." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/84340.

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How can architects let their buildings interact with the water while protecting occupants from the potential danger? The two intents are very different and often compete with one, either protection or recreation, as the primary program in one project. Water draws people, everyone likes being near water. People visit waterfalls and the beach just to experience moving water, they go boating and kayaking just to be on the water. Water views and access are considered an amenity that drive up prices in buildings. Whenever possible architects should strive to connect their architecture and water and to let occupants interact with the water. However, water can be dangerous too. Overfull rivers wash away roads and cars. Floods inundate entire cities, and hurricanes devastate huge islands. In addition to catastrophic damage sea levels are rising around the world causing damage and rendering low lying land uninhabitable. Architects must protect against these dangers. If designed correctly buildings can offer shelter from storms and resist rising water of all kinds. For my thesis I decided to study how to reconcile these two conflicting approaches to water.
Master of Architecture

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14

Christensen, Janelle J. "Hurricane Preparedness of Community-Dwelling Dementia Caregivers in South Florida." Scholar Commons, 2012. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4010.

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The aim of this dissertation is to explore how informal caregivers for people with dementia (PWD), who are community dwelling (i.e., not in nursing homes), prepare and plan for disasters. The research site is a particularly hurricane-prone region of Florida, second only to New Orleans in its vulnerability. An underlying assumption of this research is that caregivers for PWD have to plan and anticipate problems that are unique to their role. The rationale for the study described here is that disaster planning and mitigation save lives (Tengs et al. 1995), but there is little or no literature on disaster planning for the frail elderly and their caregivers. Mixed methods design which includes: 1) participant observation; 2) staff interviews (n=8);3) preliminary caregiver interviews (n=5); 4) baseline chart/disaster plan review (n=290);5) intervention (presentation to staff and administration) and form revision; 6) follow-up chart/ disaster plan review (n=259); 7) caregiver survey(n=253);8) final caregiver interviews (N=15- total number of caregiver interviews 20); 9) disaster literacy testing (n=20); 10) final group interview with ACC administration. This work documents the way that caregivers talk about disaster planning and say they will do if a hurricane strikes and reflects on their past hurricane experiences. Major findings include gaps in the county run Special Needs Shelter services available in Florida for people with dementia. The response and difficulty that caregivers might face can depend on the stage of the disease.

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Hart, Marylea. "Evaluating the preservation of hurricane deposits in Florida coastal sediments." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2003. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0001422.

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Miller, Raymond A. "Modeling hurricane evacuation vulnerability a case study of Pinellas County, Florida /." [Tampa, Fla.] : University of South Florida, 2005. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0001350.

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Muegge, Melissa Dawn. "Communication efforts of Florida extension faculty during the 2004 hurricane season." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2005. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0013274.

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Miller, Raymond A. Jr. "Modeling Hurricane Evacuation Vulnerability: A Case Study of Pinellas County, Florida." Scholar Commons, 2005. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/772.

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Determining where people are most likely to suffer losses and have difficulty in evacuating from a hurricane is important to developing a hurricane response strategy. This thesis proposes a methodology for modeling and assessing evacuation vulnerability to a specific hurricane and applies this method to study Pinellas County, Florida. The vulnerability of Pinellas County to evacuation problems and the degree of loss that may be suffered from a hurricane is quantified in the Hurricane Evacuation Vulnerability Index. This index is the sum of three indices that represent social, transportation, and geophysical aspects of hazards research. Social vulnerability is assessed with an existing social vulnerability model that uses census data to locate areas where people will have difficulty evacuating based on demographic variables. Areas where people are vulnerable to traffic problems due to the condition of the evacuation routes are identified with a model developed using GIS. The degree of damage these areas may suffer from a specific hurricane is modeled using a tightly coupled GIS program, HAZUS-MH. These loss estimates are used to identify areas where evacuation may be necessary. The Hurricane Evacuation Vulnerability Index is mapped to show the areas that are most vulnerable to evacuation problems and may suffer losses to the built environment and subsequent human displacement. The Hurricane Evacuation Vulnerability Index is a valuable tool for emergency planning. The results are useful in allocating and directing resources to facilitate the evacuation of vulnerable areas. Emergency management officials can prepare evacuation plans based on the modeled results. Traffic management strategies can be implemented to reduce traffic congestion along evacuation routes. Transportation resources, such as buses, can be directed to areas where people do not have the resources to evacuate.

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Dash, Nicole. "Inequality in disaster : the case of hurricane Andrew and Florida City." FIU Digital Commons, 1994. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2738.

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This thesis is a case study of Florida City, a small community in South Dade County, Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. This is a community whose pre-impact conditions may have had as much to do with the impact of the storm as did the winds of Hurricane Andrew themselves. As will be evidenced by a comparison case study with Homestead, Florida City not only disproportionately felt the effects of the storm itself, but also received less aid. This study examines Florida City in terms of both impact of the storm and the community's future in the wake of the hurricane. Besieged by poverty and poor housing conditions, it was a community awaiting tragedy.

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Long, Tonya Michele. "An assessment of sea turtle nesting behavior in relation to hurricane- and restoration-induced beach morphodynamics." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2010. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4527.

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Coastal habitats are highly dynamic and vulnerable to landscape-level disturbances such as storms and restoration projects. Along the east coast of Florida these areas are particularly valuable as they provide significant nesting habitat for two sea turtle species, the threatened loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and the endangered green turtle (Chelonia mydas). This coast was heavily impacted by three major hurricanes in 2004 and in some areas by large restoration projects in 2005. Recent remote sensing methods allow for broad evaluation of the shoreline and thus the ability to assess sea turtle nesting habitat at a landscape scale. I collected nesting data for southern Brevard County, Florida from 1989-2005 and for Canaveral National Seashore, Florida from 1995-2005. I used LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and IfSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) remote sensing to map sea turtle nesting habitat in both areas following the 2004 hurricanes and any subsequent restoration. Canaveral National Seashore underwent no restoration while southern Brevard County received extensive restoration. Topographic variables (e.g., total sand volume, width, and slope) derived from the remote sensing data were compared across three time periods (pre-hurricane, post-hurricane, and recovery period) and I compared nesting success data from 2004 to 2005. I built regression models for 2004 and 2005 to determine which topographic features influenced loggerhead and green turtle nesting the most. Green turtle nesting success declined from 2004 to 2005 only in highly restored areas while loggerhead nesting sucess declined throughout. Hurricanes caused a reduction in most of the topographic variables and restoration predominantly impacted aspects of the beach profile (e.g. slope and width).; Loggerheads responded to profile characteristics (e.g. upper and lower beach slopes) though green turtles showed no consistent response to topography. The results indicate that both loggerheads and green turtles are sensitive to beach restoration, although loggerhead nesting is more influenced by beach morphology and green turtle nesting may be influenced more by other dune features such as vegetation cover.
ID: 028916930; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (M.S.)--University of Central Florida, 2010.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-72).
M.S.
Masters
Department of Biology
Sciences

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Astray-Caneda, Evelio E. III. "Hazard Mitigation Element Quality in Coastal Comprehensive Plans in a State with Strong Requirements for Hazard Mitigation Plan Elements." FIU Digital Commons, 2013. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/843.

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This dissertation examines the quality of hazard mitigation elements in a coastal, hazard prone state. I answer two questions. First, in a state with a strong mandate for hazard mitigation elements in comprehensive plans, does plan quality differ among county governments? Second, if such variation exists, what drives this variation? My research focuses primarily on Florida’s 35 coastal counties, which are all at risk for hurricane and flood hazards, and all fall under Florida’s mandate to have a comprehensive plan that includes a hazard mitigation element. Research methods included document review to rate the hazard mitigation elements of all 35 coastal county plans and subsequent analysis against demographic and hazard history factors. Following this, I conducted an electronic, nationwide survey of planning professionals and academics, informed by interviews of planning leaders in Florida counties. I found that hazard mitigation element quality varied widely among the 35 Florida coastal counties, but were close to a normal distribution. No plans were of exceptionally high quality. Overall, historical hazard effects did not correlate with hazard mitigation element quality, but some demographic variables that are associated with urban populations did. The variance in hazard mitigation element quality indicates that while state law may mandate, and even prescribe, hazard mitigation in local comprehensive plans, not all plans will result in equal, or even adequate, protection for people. Furthermore, the mixed correlations with demographic variables representing social and disaster vulnerability shows that, at least at the county level, vulnerability to hazards does not have a strong effect on hazard mitigation element quality. From a theory perspective, my research is significant because it compares assumptions about vulnerability based on hazard history and demographics to plan quality. The only vulnerability-related variables that appeared to correlate, and at that mildly so, with hazard mitigation element quality, were those typically representing more urban areas. In terms of the theory of Neo-Institutionalism and theories related to learning organizations, my research shows that planning departments appear to have set norms and rules of operating that preclude both significant public involvement and learning from prior hazard events.

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Bowers, Colleen Marie. "Seafloor ripples created by waves from hurricane Ivan on the West Florida Shelf." Thesis, Online version of original thesis, 2006. http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA471865.

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Thesis (M.S.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/ Applied Ocean Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2006.
"September 2006." Description based on title screen as viewed on June 8, 2010. DTIC Descriptor(s): Ocean Waves, Water Waves, Ripples, Side Looking Sonar, Ocean Bottom, Frequency, Detection, Sites, Theses, Depth, Buried Objects, Mines(Ordnance), Secondary Waves, Scientists, Offshore, Sediments, Acoustic Data, Data Acquisition, Storms, Sand, Motion, Models, Surface Waves, Angles Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-96). Also available in print.

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Floto, Erin Lyn. "An Evaluation of Florida Gulf Coast University's Residence Life Staff Member's Hurricane Preparedness." Thesis, University of South Florida, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1562326.

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Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) is located along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in southern Florida, in an area vulnerable to hurricane strikes. At FGCU, The Office of Housing and Residence Life (OHRL) is responsible for three locations on- and off-campus where students reside in apartment or suite-style housing. Due to the large number of students with varying backgrounds, the OHRL staff members have become essential personnel during severe weather events that may cause safety concerns for the residents living in OHRL housing locations. This study's purpose is to assess the Residence Life staff on their level of preparedness in the event of a hurricane strike, including carrying out severe weather procedures and maintaining the safety of residents. After running multiple regression analyses, bivariate correlations, and t-tests, this study indicates that those with a higher hurricane knowledge and experience score were more likely to be females and that one's preparedness confidence was the single independent variable found to have a relationship with, and was considered a predicting variable for, the dependent variable (preparedness as an RA/RD). Further analysis was done to consider specific answers on RA's and RD's knowledge of FGCU procedures in comparison to recent campus emergency management studies to consider the overall effectiveness of their procedures. Findings indicate that improvements can be made in the areas concerning their knowledge of when to evacuate, their duties for evacuation, and how the university communicates information. This study and survey can be adapted further to expand on student vulnerabilities to include a more broad range of students, schools and teacher's vulnerabilities, and expanded to include more natural hazards.

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Floto, Erin. "An Evaluation of Florida Gulf Coast University's Residence Life Staff Member's Hurricane Preparedness." Scholar Commons, 2014. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5218.

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Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) is located along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in southern Florida, in an area vulnerable to hurricane strikes. At FGCU, The Office of Housing and Residence Life (OHRL) is responsible for three locations on- and off-campus where students reside in apartment or suite-style housing. Due to the large number of students with varying backgrounds, the OHRL staff members have become essential personnel during severe weather events that may cause safety concerns for the residents living in OHRL housing locations. This study's purpose is to assess the Residence Life staff on their level of preparedness in the event of a hurricane strike, including carrying out severe weather procedures and maintaining the safety of residents. After running multiple regression analyses, bivariate correlations, and t-tests, this study indicates that those with a higher hurricane knowledge and experience score were more likely to be females and that one's preparedness confidence was the single independent variable found to have a relationship with, and was considered a predicting variable for, the dependent variable (preparedness as an RA/RD). Further analysis was done to consider specific answers on RA's and RD's knowledge of FGCU procedures in comparison to recent campus emergency management studies to consider the overall effectiveness of their procedures. Findings indicate that improvements can be made in the areas concerning their knowledge of when to evacuate, their duties for evacuation, and how the university communicates information. This study and survey can be adapted further to expand on student vulnerabilities to include a more broad range of students, schools and teacher's vulnerabilities, and expanded to include more natural hazards.

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Ercolani, Christian Paul. "Reconstructing the prehistoric record of intense hurricane landfalls from Southwest Florida back-barrier sediments." Thesis, Florida Gulf Coast University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1562046.

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Recent research has proposed that an increase in sea surface temperatures (SSTs) interpreted to be caused by anthropogenic climate change has lead to an increase in the frequency of intense hurricanes. However, this theory has been challenged on the basis that the instrumental record is too short (approximately 160 years) and unreliable to reveal any long-term trends in intense hurricane activity. This limitation can be addressed by the means of paleotempestology, a field that studies past hurricane activity by means of geological and biological proxy techniques. Hurricane-induced overwash deposits that become preserved in the sediments of back-barrier lagoons, lakes and marshes can provide scientists a unique opportunity to study past hurricane landfalls. It also provides an opportunity to study their associated climate drivers over much longer time-scales (centuries to millennia).

This study investigates overwash deposits (paleo-tempestites) at 10 sites along the Southwest Florida coastline, focusing on two. The Sanibel Island marsh and Keewaydin Island lagoon have a high potential for recording hurricane-induced paleo-tempestites. The Sanibel Island marsh record was constructed using loss-on-ignition, grain size analysis, percent calcium carbonate, and chronologically dated using 210Pb analysis. Proxy and dating results of three sediment cores revealed two prominent paleo-tempestites—likely representing Hurricane Donna (1960) and the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926. These layers were deposited as both fine-grained sand and shell hash, and contribute to our understanding of storm overwash in the modern record. Three sediment cores were also extracted from a back-barrier lagoon (Island Bay), behind Keewaydin Island in Collier County, Florida. Core samples were analyzed for grain size, percent calcium carbonate, fossil shells species and dated using the ²¹⁰Pb and ¹⁴C dating methods. These methods revealed a 1 thousand year old record of hurricane overwash. Two prominent paleo-tempestites, deposited as both fine-grained sand and shell hash, were also observed at this site and may possibly replicate the most recent storm events documented on Sanibel Island. This suggests that only the most intense hurricanes are being recorded in the geologic record.

"Active" (1000-500 yrs. BP) and "inactive" (500-0 yrs. BP) periods of hurricane overwash were identified in the Island Bay record. These correlate well with the reconstructed SSTs from the Main Development Region in the North Atlantic Ocean during the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age. Results from this initial Southwest Florida study point to SSTs of the North Atlantic Main Development Region as a potential climatic driver of hurricane landfalls in Southwest Florida over the past 1 thousand years. This is in opposition to SSTs in the Gulf of Mexico and El Niño Southern Oscillation as hypothesized by other studies in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean regions. These results are the first proxy records of past hurricane strikes in Southwest Florida.

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Oravetz, Jonathan Randal. "Morphological impacts of Hurricane Katrina on Petit Bois Island, Mississippi." [Pensacola, Fla.] : University of West Florida, 2008. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/WFE0000115.

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May, Jeremy L. "Responses of Four Non-tidal Forest Communities of the Florida Everglades to Hurricane Impact over 21 Years." FIU Digital Commons, 2016. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2467.

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The regular occurrence of hurricane-associated winds has been an important factor in shaping the structure and composition of the forest ecosystems of the Florida Everglades. Forest communities in the Everglades are adapted to hurricane disturbances, but increased frequency and/or intensity of hurricanes may lead to decline or even collapse of these communities. The overall objective of this project is to understand the patterns, pace, and mechanisms of the recovery process to Hurricane Andrew damage in four Everglade forest communities: pinelands, hardwood hammocks, bayhead tree islands, and cypress domes. This study combines long- and short-term field measurements and experimental garden studies to determine how the four woody plant community types recover from hurricane impacts. Most of the community types were adversely affected by storm damage in the short-term (3 years post-hurricane) through altered growth rates and canopy defoliation, however these effects were relatively short lived and were not visible in shifts in species composition after the long-term (20 year) recovery period. Only in the most diverse communities over the long-term there was a delayed mortality in damaged individuals that drove a diversity loss. This loss was not present over the short-term recovery time period. Using individual damage extent and short-term recovery growth rates, I developed a simplified model that accurately predicted surviving individual stem size over long-term recovery periods of Taxodium distichum within cypress domes and select hardwood hammock species. The shadehouse experiments demonstrated the importance of nutrient availability to growth of seedlings of canopy dominants. Recruits of these species responded to changing environmental conditions associated with storm impact through a variety of strategies in accordance with their adaptive traits. Synergistically, the combined parts of this dissertation demonstrate directional community and species-specific shifts that vary over time scales. Storm impacts have the potential to alter community composition and diversity within impacted systems, and in particular the Everglades ecosystem.

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Lybolt, Matthew J. "Count or Pointcount: Is Percent Octocoral Cover an Adequate Proxy for Octocoral Abundance?" [Tampa, Fla. : Matthew J. Lybolt], 2003. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0000081.

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Oxenyuk, Victoria. "Distribution Fits for Various Parameters in the Hurricane Model." FIU Digital Commons, 2014. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1366.

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The FPHLM is the only open public hurricane loss evaluation model available for assessment of hazard to insured residential property from hurricanes in Florida. The model consists of three independent components: the atmospheric science component, the vulnerability component and the actuarial component. The atmospheric component simulates thousands of storms, their wind speeds and their decay once on land on the basis of historical hurricane statistics defining wind risk for all residential zip codes in Florida. The focus of the thesis was to analyze atmospheric science component of the Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model, replicate statistical procedures used to model various parameters of atmospheric science component and to validate the model. I establish the distribution for modeling annual hurricane occurrence, choose the best fitting distribution for the radius of maximum winds and compute the expression for the pressure profile parameter Holland B.

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Ranalli, Philip Anthony. "Small Drainage Basins and the Probable Maximum Flood: A Flood Inundation Study of an Anticipated Extreme Storm Event in West Central Florida." [Tampa, Fla.] : University of South Florida, 2004. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0000367.

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Albury, Keith Allen. "Multiple hazards and community vulnerability in Hillsborough County, Florida." [Tampa, Fla.] : University of South Florida, 2004. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0000421.

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Catarelli, Rebecca. "Rising seas, surprising storms : temporalities of climate and catastrophe in Vermont, New York and the Florida Keys." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e477dcc4-cd44-4952-a405-13e022008615.

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The phenomenon of climate change exists in a liminal state between denial and acceptance, past and future, theory and reality, problem and catastrophe, unfolding in the spaces between apparently stable forms. This thesis considers different temporalities emerging within this transition through a creative exploration of extreme weather and climatic events that seeks to foreground the idea of change itself. Research centers around the Florida Keys, a low lying archipelago that is widely expected to become uninhabitable in the next half century due to sea level rise, but only if the islands do not suffer a similar fate much sooner with the sudden arrival of a catastrophic hurricane. While most Keys residents are unconcerned about the growing reality of sea level rise, hurricanes are a constant threat generating a palpable atmosphere of anticipation and corresponding precaution. In resonance with this regular storm activity in the Florida Keys, the project also reflects on the coincidental occurrence of Hurricanes Irene (2011) and Sandy (2012), two errant and devastating storms that visited the northeastern United States over the course of this project and personally affected the author. Thus, extreme weather provides a material entry point into the complex and far-reaching event of climate change, offering an opportunity to theorize transition and to reflect on what might be creatively recuperated from cross currents of climate and catastrophe. In conclusion, the thesis proposes an ontology inspired by the unique reproductive strategy of the mangrove plant that has thickly and extensively colonized the coastline of southern Florida and through which events are understood to possess qualities of latency, accrual and distribution and to give rise to a future that is germinal, a present that is continuously resignified and a past that remains profoundly creative.

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Harris, Kittiya. "Potential Impacts of Accelerated Sea-Level Rise and Hurricane-Induced Storm Surge in Western Pasco County, Florida." Scholar Commons, 2017. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6856.

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Sea levels have risen approximately 20 cm since the beginning of the 20th century and more than 3 cm in the past 20 years, suggesting that global sea level rise is accelerating. As sea levels continue to rise and storms become more intense, coastal property and populations become more susceptible to damage. Florida is especially vulnerable to hurricane-induced storm surge (HSS) and the onset of accelerated sea-level rise (ASLR) due to its extensive coastline and high population density along the coast. The main purpose of this research is to assess the potential economic impacts of ASLR and HSS for two of western Pasco County’s municipalities, Port Richey and New Port Richey. A Geographic Information System is used to determine the spatial extent at a high-resolution of coastal inundation, the economic loss based on property value and road expenditure due to this inundation, and its impact on critical infrastructure. The results from this study showed coastal flooding generated by 0.5m SLR amounted to 48.8% land loss and $217,108,692 of property loss. Monetary losses from inundated properties shifted dramatically from 1.0m to 1.5m SLR, from $295 million to $417 million, suggesting that the tipping point could only be a half-meter SLR. Based on the 2.0m SLR results, most of major highway US-19 was completely flooded, property tax losses amounted to approximately $7.1 million, and road expenditure was approximately $158 million. Data provided in this study can be useful for coastal management and planning in Port Richey and New Port Richey.

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Young, Jeremy S. "Investigation Into The Relationship Between Hurricane Storm Parameters and Damage." UNF Digital Commons, 2013. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/437.

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“Economic damage, such as damage to property and infra-structure, from hurricane surges depends on two factors 1) the depth of coastal inundation and 2) the area covered by the surge” (Irish et. al 2007). Typically, damage estimates are developed after hurricanes have dissipated. To have the ability to predict hurricane damage in advance based upon various physical parameters would be a technical advance that could aid vulnerable coastal communities with hurricane planning. This thesis advances this goal forward by relating “Total Normalized Damage” to “Surge Scale” along with other key parameters. In this thesis Total Normalized Damages are compared to Surge Scale in three statistically significant ways: Un-separated Comparison, Separated Comparison and Separated Comparison without “micro-canes”. An attempt at the surge damage function has been presented in this thesis as a cornerstone of the research work contained herein. This thesis also examines the effect of different damage components and their uncertainties on Total Normalized Damage. Such damage estimates include wind damage, surge damage, and inland flooding, which were separated into individual damage categories.

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Silverman, Noah L. "Assessing the consequences of hurricane-induced fragmentation of mangrove forest on habitat and nekton in Big Sable Creek, Florida." [Tampa, Fla] : University of South Florida, 2006. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0001751.

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Lu, Jing-Chein. "A comparative study of single family and multifamily housing recovery following 1992 Hurricane Andrew in Miami-Dade County, Florida." [College Station, Tex. : Texas A&M University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3078.

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Torres, Hannah Rose. "How Lessons from a Past Disaster Can Influence Resilience and Climate Adaptation in Broward County, Florida." Scholar Commons, 2017. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6768.

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In the face of future uncertainties, many places are struggling with decisions about how to prepare for and adapt to climate change. The purpose of this research is to shed light on the concept of resilience, and uncover lessons for resilience-building exposed by a past disaster, Hurricane Wilma. The dissertation begins with an introduction (Chapter 1) detailing the research problem, key terms and overall research design. The study was conducted in three distinct phases. The first phase (Chapter 2), explored the concept of resilience to understand how it was defined in three South Florida communities. Content analyses of city and county documents were conducted to extract explicit definitions of resilience as well as implicit definitions based on carefully selected keywords. Results showed the engineering resilience concept was most prevalent across all three study areas. Furthermore, keywords related to the dimension of the built environment were most common in Broward and Lee Counties. While this may indicate a need for communities to shift toward more progressive, social-ecological conceptualizations of resilience, a more central conclusion was that local applications of resilience frameworks need to be more explicit about how they define resilience, and what resilience-building looks like in that particular context. Phase two (Chapter 3) explored the interplay between specified resilience, addressing resistance to known disturbances, and general resilience, addressing a system's capacity to deal with less predictable shocks. This phase entailed a content analysis of 172 Sun-Sentinel newspaper articles about Hurricane Wilma. Prominent themes that emerged included distribution of benefits and risks, social learning and memory, cross-scale issues, vulnerability and social networks. This chapter concludes with four specific recommendations for Broward County to enhance resilience to future storms and less predictable disturbances, like climate change and sea level rise. During the third phase (Chapter 4) a modified resilience activation framework was applied to analyze social factors that may limit or promote adaptive capacity in South Florida. Focus groups with homeowners were used to gain insight about past experiences with Hurricane Wilma, as well as perceptions and expectations regarding local climate adaptation efforts. Results showed that risk perceptions, insurance practices, and social networks may influence the willingness and ability of individuals to prepare for and adapt to disasters. Social limits to adaptation among participants included inaccurate risk perceptions based on past experiences and feelings of helplessness, and a lack of political trust at the state level. Social resources that can be leveraged to enhance adaptive capacity included knowledge reserves of long-term residents, strong bonding capital, and trust in local, non-elected government employees. Results from each phase of research were synthesized to create a novel procedural roadmap to guide how communities integrate resiliency into their planning documents.

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Bancroft, Stuart W. "Optimizing the Imaging of Multiple Frequency GPR Datasets Using Composite Radargrams: An Example From Santa Rosa Island, Florida." Scholar Commons, 2010. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/1566.

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Acquiring GPR data at multiple frequencies is useful because higher-frequency profiles have better spatial resolution, although they suffer from reduced depth penetration. Lower-frequencies can generally resolve to greater depths, but at the cost of spatial resolution. For concise presentation of GPR data, it would be useful to combine the best features of each profile into a composite radargram. This study explores effective ways to present GPR data acquired at multiple frequencies. An example is shown from a survey of hurricane overwash deposits from Santa Rosa Island, Florida. The methodology used to create a composite radargram is dependent on which of two goals the composite radargram is designed to achieve. These goals are broadening the spectral bandwidth of GPR data to increase the effectiveness of deconvolution and enhancing the resolution and depth of GPR data by plotting high-frequency data at early two-way travel times, low-frequency data at late two-way travel times, and using filters to smoothly transition from high-frequency to lower-frequency data. The steps towards creating a composite radargram include: 1) applying standard processing to nominal frequency data sets, 2) creating spatially coincident data sets, 3) equalizing the amplitude spectra among each nominal frequency data set, and 4) summing nominal frequency data sets together. Spectral bandwidth broadening is achieved by applying optical spectral whitening and summing nominal frequency data sets using a single ramped. Deconvolving this composite radargram did not show the same success observed by Booth et al. (2009). Enhancing the resolution and depth of GPR data can be achieved by applying amplitude envelope equalization (AEE) and summation using double ramped filters. AEE calculates the coefficients required to make equivalent average amplitude envelopes for GPR data that has been gained with automatic gain control . Double ramped filters suppress low-frequency energy for two-way travel times when a higher-frequency data set has adequate signal strength and higher frequency energy for two-way travel times when higher- frequency energy exhibits significant attenuation. A composite radargram built with AEE and double ramped filters achieves the goal enhancing resolution and depth of GPR data. Shallow reflections are interpreted as dune and hurricane overwash stratigraphy.

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Catlett-Newby, Vicki L. "The effects of evacuation and relocation following Hurricane Andrew on children ages two through six." FIU Digital Commons, 1993. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2087.

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The purpose of this study was to describe the effects of evacuation from Hurricane Andrew in August of 1993 and subsequent relocation following the storm on the young children of six families from Homestead Air Force Base, Florida. Interviews were conducted over a three-month period; these were supplemented with samples of the children's drawings and observations of the children at play. The resulting case studies illustrate various coping strategies utilized by the six families to deal with the loss of home, goods, and community in the wake of the storm and the ways in which these impacted the young children in each family. Parental coping styles were an influence on the children's ability to make the adjustments necessary during this especially stressful transition.

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Ogurcak, Danielle E. "The Effect of Disturbance and Freshwater Availability on Lower Florida Keys’ Coastal Forest Dynamics." FIU Digital Commons, 2015. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2288.

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Coastal forest retreat in the Florida Keys during the 20th century has been attributed to a combination of sea level rise and hurricane storm surge impacts, but the interactions between these two disturbances leading to forest decline are not well understood. The goal of my research was to assess their effects over a period spanning more than two decades, and to examine the relationships between these press and pulse disturbances and freshwater availability in pine rockland, hardwood hammock, and supratidal scrub communities. Impacts and recovery from two storm surges, Hurricanes Georges (1998) and Wilma (2005), were assessed with satellite-derived vegetation indices and multiple change detection techniques. Impacts were greater at lower elevations, and in hardwood hammock, spectral signatures indicative of plant stress and productivity returned to pre-disturbance levels within a few years. In pine rockland, impacts were predominately related to Hurricane Wilma, however, a similar return to pre-disturbance conditions was absent, suggesting that trajectories of disturbance recovery differed between the two communities. Long-term monitoring of forest composition, structure, and groundwater salinity showed that compositional shifts in the low shrub stratum were associated with salinization of the freshwater resource attributable to sea level rise. Throughout the course of twelve months of climate and groundwater monitoring (2011-2012), groundwater salinity generally decreased in response to large precipitation events. Modeling of geophysical data indicated that groundwater salinity was an important predictor of community type. Isotopic analysis of d18O in plant stem water and foliar d13C was used to determine temporal and spatial patterns in water use and plant stress in two community dominants, slash pine, Pinus elliottii var. densa, and buttonwood, Conocarpus erectus. Both species relied heavily on groundwater, and plant stress was related to increasing groundwater salinity. The results of this work suggest that the interaction of press and pulse disturbances drive changes in community composition by causing mortality of salt-sensitive species and altering the freshwater resource.

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McCarthy, Elizabeth Ann. "Twitter Use During Hurricane Irma: How the Local Government Agencies Amplify and Attenuate Risk Factors for the Vulnerable Populations." UNF Digital Commons, 2018. https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/839.

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Twitter has become a popular channel for local governments to explore crisis communication during a hurricane. Local governments use Twitter to distribute crisis messages to the public, and are able to amplify or attenuate risk perception. Many factors attribute to individuals’ risk perception including control, choice, children, novelty, and risk-benefit tradeoff. The Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) provides a guide to understanding the intensifying or weakening of these risk messages. While these crisis messages are directed to the general public, the local governments may be neglecting information for the vulnerable populations. In order to prepare for a hurricane, vulnerable populations need updates from local governments and emergency agencies before, during, and after the hurricane. Relationships among stages of a hurricane, tweet categories, and risk perception were explored. A sample of 1,043 tweets from six Twitter accounts of local governments in Florida were analyzed to provide insight into what type of messages local governments tweet and what risk perceptions local governments emphasize during the stages of Hurricane Irma. Using a Cross-tabulation analysis, researchers analyzed significant differences for stages of a hurricane, tweet categories, and risk perceptions. Findings for this study indicate that results were significant through each stage of the hurricane. Keywords: Twitter, Hurricane, Risk Factors, SARF, Vulnerable Populations

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Waldman, Alanna D. "Spatial and temporal trends in the Xestospongia muta (giant barrel sponge) population on the Southeast Florida Reef Tract." Thesis, NSUWorks, 2019. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_stuetd/514.

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Xestospongia muta, the giant barrel sponge, is a key component of coral reef benthic communities in Southeast Florida and the Caribbean. Xestospongia muta increases habitat complexity and stability, and filters large volumes of water, enhancing water quality and facilitating nutrient cycling. Therefore, it is important to investigate trends in the X. muta population on Southeast Florida reefs in response to anthropogenic stressors, changing environmental conditions and acute disturbances and how these events affect its ecological role in the benthic community. This study identified trends in X. muta population density, volume, and size class distribution over time and across reef habitats on the Southeast Florida Reef Tract (SEFRT). Density and volume changes were also investigated following acute physical disturbance caused by Hurricane Irma in September of 2017. Images and demographic data collected at 41 permanent sites from two long-term monitoring projects, The Southeast Florida Coral Reef Evaluation and Monitoring Project (SECREMP) and the Broward County Biological Monitoring Project (BC BIO), were used to evaluate the X. muta population trends. My analysis of the data from 2003 to 2018 shows that Xestospongia muta densities and volume increased over time regionally on the SEFRT and increased on the nearshore, middle, and outer reefs of the SEFRT. Xestospongia muta was found to be more abundant on the SEFRT compared to other locations including the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, Colombia, Belize and Saba. Highest mean density on the SEFRT was 0.35 individuals m-2 ±0.04 SEM, which was higher than the mean densities between 0.21 and 0.29 individuals m-2 at the Caribbean sites previously mentioned. Xestospongia muta individuals were categorized into size classes by volume to investigate density distribution of size classes on the SEFRT. Greater abundances in the smallest of five size classes (≤143.13 cm3) drove the increasing density trends. Despite the increasing trends from 2003 to 2017 with a peak in density and volume in 2017, Hurricane Irma caused a region-wide decline in population density and volume as well as a loss of individuals within the largest size class by volume (>17383.97 cm3). These results indicate that the X. muta population is exhibiting increasing long-term trends on the SEFRT, but also demonstrate that acute physical disturbances have a significant impact on the demographics of the population. Because of this sponge’s multiple roles in the reef communities, these trends have implications for structural complexity, nutrient cycling, water filtration, as well as carbon sequestration on the SEFRT.

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Johnston, Matthew W. "Computer Modeling the Incursion Patterns of Marine Invasive Species." NSUWorks, 2015. http://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_stuetd/33.

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Parrish, Bradley K. "Affordable Housing in the Florida Keys: Providing Affordable Units Within the Limits of Local Growth Management Regulations." Cincinnati, Ohio : University of Cincinnati, 2007. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?acc%5Fnum=ucin1188344427.

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Thesis (Master of Community Planning)--University of Cincinnati, 2007.
Advisor: Xinhao Wang. Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed Feb. 6, 2008). Includes abstract. Keywords: affordable; housing; affordable housing; Florida Keys; Growth Management; ROGO; Residential Rate of Growth Ordinance; Rate of Growth Ordinance; hurricane evacuation; FKCCS; florida keys carrying capacity study; community planning thesis; planning thesis. Includes bibliographical references.

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Todaro, Gabriel Francis. "The Development of a Hydrodynamics-Based Storm Severity Index." UNF Digital Commons, 2015. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/601.

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A hydrodynamic-based storm severity scale that ranks the damage potential of a storm at a given coastal area is developed. Seventeen tropical and extratropical storm events at 113 different locations on the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico are examined in order to create and verify a Storm Severity Index Model (SSIM). The results from the SSIM are then used to create a location-based storm severity scale titled the Twenty-Four Point Storm Severity Scale. The Twenty-Four Point Scale is based on three subsets of factors. The first is the energy flux above the normal mean high water line that the storm produces, the second is the amount of overwash due to wave-induced runup, and the third is the inundation due to surge-induced flooding that occurs during the event. The advantage of this methodology is that it enables the level of risk associated with a storm to be examined for a specific region, rather than having a single broad value define the entire event. Although, the index is intended for use on sandy beaches with or without dunes, the general methodology could be extended to armored beaches.

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Lachance, Michelle M. AbdelRazig Yassir. "Risk and liability analysis modeling for hurricane damage on Florida bridges a Geographical Information System application /." Diss., 2005. http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11142005-201044.

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Thesis (M. S.)--Florida State University, 2005.
Advisor: Yassir AbdelRazig, Florida State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Feb. 6,2006). Document formatted into pages; contains xv, 223 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

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Wood, Jefferson Elsner James B. "Fluctuations in hurricane landfall frequency along the east coast of Florida as a function of regional climate." 2004. http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11132004-185310.

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Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2004.
Advisor: Dr. James Elsner, Florida State University, College of Social Sciences, Dept. of Geography. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 18, 2005). Includes bibliographical references.

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"An evaluation of the effects of hurricanes Elena and Juan along the coastline of Pinellas County, Florida, 1985 using Landsat Thematic Mapper images [electronic resource] / by Gail A. McGarry." 1987. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/tc/fhp/SF00000277.jpg.

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Howe, Peter D. Yarnal Brent. "Hurricane risk perceptions and preparedness among Florida business owners." 2009. http://etda.libraries.psu.edu/theses/approved/WorldWideIndex/ETD-3976/index.html.

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Priestas, Anthony Michael. "Morphological barrier island changes and recovery of dunes after hurricane Dennis, St. George Island, Florida." 2009. http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-04132009-102455.

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Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2009.
Advisor: Sergio Fagherazzi, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Geological Sciences. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed July 14, 2009). Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 95 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Hurricanes in Florida'

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