Palm Beach County (Fla.)

Sourcing sediment from adjacent inlets for placement on eroded downdrift beaches is an increasingly common practice, as an inlet sources’ proximity to a placement site reduces the transportation cost of a project and is considered a beneficial use of the dredge material (BUDM). This project aimed to compare two nourishment projects using adjacent inlet sediment sources for changes in water quality, morphology, and sedimentology at two geographically similar locations in southeast Florida. In 2023, Jupiter Beach Park (Jupiter, FL) and South Inlet Park Beach (Boca Raton, FL) were nourished using sediment from the adjacent inlet system. Jupiter was nourished with sediment from the inlet’s sand trap and Boca Raton was nourished with sediment from the ebb shoal. Suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in the water column is closely associated with other properties of water including temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen.
A sudden increase in suspended sediment in nearshore water can be triggered by anthropogenic activity, like nourishment, as well as natural occurrences, like storms. Sampling began prior to the initiation of nourishment (February) and continued throughout hurricane season (May – November). Sediment samples were analyzed for moment method statistics (i.e., mean, standard deviation/sorting) at half-phi intervals above 63μm. Fine sediment (<63μm) was dried and weighed. Surface and bottom water samples were collected and measured for SSC, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and salinity to analyze changes in response to nourishment.

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.

This thesis examined the road impact fee realities of 11 of Palm Beach County’s public and private sector land development stakeholders. To learn more about how the county’s road impact fee ordinance works in practice, in 2021, 11 stakeholders were interviewed about their experiences with the county’s road impact fee program. Transportation impact fee programs may help relieve development-driven traffic externalities and cost burdens, so long as suitable methodologies are applied (Burge & Ihlanfeldt, 2013; Stahl, 2021). In 2021, Palm Beach County’s road impact fee ordinance required all county development applicants to pay a specified road impact fee dollar amount, regardless of the proposed project’s location and traffic impact, with exceptions (Moore, 2021b; Salour, 2021). Key arguments for and against the county’s road impact fees touch on differences between travel needs, land use patterns, and transit potential in the county’s urban and rural/suburban communities (Clemente, 2021; Hernandez, 2021; Salour, 2021).

Research shows that the United States of America is losing its competitive stance in the area of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) relative to other countries. One strategy that could solve this problem would be to diversify the field of STEM to include more women of color. The purpose of this narrative, qualitative research study was to explore the lived experiences of Black women with advanced/terminal degrees who are current STEM professionals in Palm Beach County.
Fourteen Black women participated in this study, which yielded four major findings that included early exposure to education’s value. importance of a strong sense of self/self-identity, challenges, and discrimination.
The hope is that these findings will provide local administrators and elected officials/decision-makers (e.g., the school district, higher education, and government agencies) with information that could advise future practices and policies to close the gap of under-represented Black women in STEM industries.

Water treatment facilities across the United States are known for providing high-quality drinking water to their residents. However, differences in treatment methods, aging infrastructure, and outdated household plumbing may affect the quality of drinking water by the time it reaches the consumer’s tap. Palm Beach County, Florida, is an area with large socioeconomic contrasts where some families live in dilapidated structures and others reside in luxurious, gated communities. This research highlights the variation of household water quality by determining metal concentrations in tap water samples in communities of different socioeconomic status. In addition, interviews were conducted with personnel from five different Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) in the study area to understand the relationship between customers and their water utility. Results indicate that effective communication strategies are needed to boost public trust and fill critical information gaps about the water treatment process. Ninety-six tap water samples were collected from households throughout eastern Palm Beach County and analyzed for different metals using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry. Surveys were also administered at the same households where tap water samples were collected. Residents were asked about their perceptions of tap water and social and economic questions regarding their household characteristics. A Socioeconomic Status (SES) index was created using Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to understand how perceptions of tap water quality and concentrations of metals in household tap water vary based on SES. Results provide evidence that those living in the lowest-ranking SES neighborhoods are the least satisfied with their tap water quality and consume less tap water than those living in higher SES neighborhoods. Water quality results highlighted large variations in concentrations of aluminum (Al) and thus, analyses focused specifically on how Al concentrations varied according to SES. Results from Ordinary Least Squares regression show that as socioeconomic status decreases, the concentration of Al in tap water increases. Six samples exceed the State of Florida’s Secondary Maximum Contaminant Level (SMCL) for Al, and five of those samples were found in the lowest-ranking SES neighborhoods (SES 1 and 2). The results of this research provide evidence that inequities in household water quality exist across eastern Palm Beach County, Florida.

The Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) known as Miami Fort Lauderdale
Pompano Beach consistently gains migrants from both the United States and abroad.
However, despite the constant increase in population, the domestic out-migration for
Miami-Dade County has consistently been more than the domestic in-migration.
Recently a similar trend is occurring in Broward and Palm Beach Counties. The
continual gain in population despite the domestic out-migration is mostly due to the large
international in-migration for the region. Using data from the Internal Revenue Service,
this paper discusses the migration of domestic populations and determines if possible new
trends exist for this MSA. Furthermore, income data collected from the IRS was used to
establish any possible relationship between migration and income.