Climate adaptation and resilience policy is quickly evolving—and with it, so are the roles of planners and preservationists. As places need to quickly adapt to withstand impacts such as flooding, communities are often left with more questions than answers about what they can do and how they can fund the work.

The American Planning Association’s Urban Design and Preservation Division created and deployed the Design and Preservation Rapid Assistance Team (D-PRAT) to solve problems such as this in collaboration with local governments and community organizations. In its third year, the D-PRAT team selected North Miami, Florida, and offered North Miami technical expertise to help implement innovative green street initiatives, emphasize the importance of retrofitting public space and integrating adaptive reuse, and design sustainable and resilient systems.

By bringing together planning, preservation, and urban design D-PRAT has cultivated a plan and process that will help North Miami understand the impact of resiliency planning as a preservation tool. This program offers a model that can be applied to communities from small rural areas to dense urban centers.