City of St. Petersburg Comprehensive Vulnerability Study, Assessment, and Resilience Plan

The City of St. Petersburg (“City”) invites qualified Firms to submit qualifications to assist with the development of a comprehensive resilience strategy and the City Vulnerability Assessment to address the environmental, social, and economic threats brought on by climatic changes. The resilience strategy will be the guiding force behind how the City will adapt its’ infrastructure and public policy to address long-term climate risks.

The City may select one Firm for each Project (A or B), or at the City’s discretion may select one Firm for both Projects (A and B).

Consultant services are requested for:

1. Vulnerability Study and Assessment:

• Research and undertake work related to complete City critical asset Vulnerability Assessment (“VA”) based on requirements as defined in Section 380.093 F.S.

1. Resilience Plan:

• Engage the community and stakeholders to review and provide input on the Resilience Plan
• Develop resilience strategies, implementation framework, and funding roadmap for the Resilience Plan.

Urban Resilience is defined by the Resilient Center Network as “the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems, within a city to survive, adapt, and thrive no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.” The City is undertaking this work to ensure resilience is integrated city-wide in project and program decision-making, that we are incorporating private and non-profit partners in planning for the future, and to set the community on the path to quickly bounce back from any challenge we face in the future.

The City of St. Petersburg is a large urban area with residents vulnerable to the effects of climate change, especially residents with limited resources and those in historically underserved areas. According to the City’s 2017 VA, completed in partnership with the Urban Land Institute, 48% of all our residents live within a Special Hazard Flood Zone. This percentage is expected to increase if actions are not taken to mitigate and adapt to SLR. Expected impacts as sea levels rise include flooding of public and private shoreline assets, water and stormwater systems during high tide, storm surge events, king tide, and storms, coastal erosion, island breach, and impacts to wetlands, contamination of the water supply caused by seepage, flooding, and failed backflow prevention, and saltwater intrusion and inundation. Pinellas County’s VA (conducted in 2022) calculated that a rise in water level of 2 feet could have significant disruption to critical assets over a 1-week period. However, the County’s VA did not include all critical assets owned by the City of St. Petersburg.

Many of the City’s critical assets and infrastructure subsystems are at risk, including roads, highways, bridges, stormwater conveyance, public transportation, bike/pedestrian networks, port/marinas, airport, freight rail, telecommunications, electricity, water supply, seawalls, and wastewater system. The City needs to analyze and prioritize these critical assets for adaptation to preserve their critical functions and protect our residents.

The VA conducted in 2017 was developed prior to s. 380.093, F.S. (Florida Statutes) and as such, needs be updated to include all critical assets and the required scenarios and horizon years. The proposed project will update the VA to meet these requirements and fill gaps to provide a better understanding and inform key decision-making and project prioritization. This will support future submission of projects to Resilient Florida Implementation Grants, the Statewide Flooding and SLR Resilience Plan, and other funding opportunities. Due to the scale and impact of climate change, these additional funding resources will be essential for the City to mitigate its effects and increase resilience to protect our community.

The next phase of the City’s resilience work will expand on the work to-date and develop a comprehensive resilience strategy to organize, outline, and build a path forward to making St. Petersburg a more resilient City. The resilience strategy is anticipated to be a collection of projects, policies, and programs aimed at addressing the issues brought on by climate change in a dynamic and multifaceted way. This RFQ seeks a planning firm that can assist the City in developing this resilience strategy and guide the development of a few top priority work streams.