EYE OF THE STORM: STRENGTHENING THE CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN OF PALM BEACH COUNTY

In the last twenty years, cultural resource preservation and management is becoming an impactful venture for all levels of a community in the build-up and wake of a disaster. All forms of government, from local to international, are seeing the value of cultural resources to the resiliency of an area and yet there is more growth to be seen in disaster management planning. With Hurricane Nicole sweeping the coast of Palm Beach County in November 2022, the reality of having a pre-storm assessment of cultural resources became paramount as the state of Palm Beach County’s cultural resources management plan is ill-equipped to handle the growing rise of climate change. This thesis utilizes the National Park Service’s Cultural Resource Climate Change Strategy (CRCC Strategy) as a foundation for developing a cultural resource management document for unincorporated areas in Palm Beach County. From the CRCC Strategy, interview questions were developed and delivered to Palm Beach County Officials to help with the development of the Cultural Resource Document. With climate change and resilience as the backbone of this thesis, the Adaptive Cycle of Resilience Theory is integrated into the development and analysis of the Cultural Resource Document. To bring practicality to the Cultural Resource Document, Dubois Historic District Park is used as its case study. The outlook on the creation of the Cultural Resource Document is to provide a steppingstone for unincorporated areas of Palm Beach County to manage cultural resources and provide municipalities an entry into disaster management studies.