Explanation of Indicator
The beach is an important resource for Florida’s residents, providing recreation opportunities and access to wildlife and natural scenery. The urbanization of Florida’s coast has resulted in decreased access due to shoreline development. The public is facing increasing difficulty in finding access points to beach areas that traditionally were easily accessible. Responses to the problem have included public purchase of land and public development exactions for the preservation of access to the beach. Decision-makers are faced with the difficult task of balancing the public’s right to access the beach and private landowners’ sovereignty over their land. Changes in the level of concern for beach access should be followed by appropriate governmental regulatory and fiscal actions.
Data Characteristics
SOURCE
There is currently no source of data for this information.
ACQUISITION
Not applicable.
COLLECTION
Not applicable.
Recommendations
Currently there is no information available for this indicator. An annual survey of Florida residents could be developed to obtain this information.
The Florida Coastal Management Program (FCMP) should develop the Florida Coastal Issue Survey to elicit responses from Florida residents concerning this issue. A survey can evoke the general public’s opinions, attitudes, and knowledge concerning coastal issues. The FCMP should conduct an annual telephone survey of the Florida adult population (ages 18 and over) to elicit responses concerning a variety of coastal management issues. The selection of the telephone numbers should be based on a two stage random digit dialing stratified by coastal and non-coastal county designation. The two stage process ensures a more random sample of residential households; the stratification ensures that the designated coastal and non-coastal counties will have an appropriate proportion of the sample. There should be two sections to the survey: the first section should obtain general demographic information about the respondent and the household (age, sex, income, # in household, zip code area, etc.); the second section should contain questions about coastal issues.
The survey should contain a question asking the respondent about their perception of the level of beach access, with prompting of a Likert scaling response.
Sample question: How do you feel about the availability of public access to the beach: access is very inadequate, inadequate, adequate, very adequate?
Summary of the responses would show which proportion of the public feels the level of access is described by each of the response choices.