There have been no rainstorms and no burst water pipes, but Alton Road, one of the main avenues on touristy Miami Beach, is flooded again. Shop-owners use sandbags and barriers to keep the water surging from the sewers from entering their venues. Passers-by take their shoes off to wade through puddles. The street, just a few blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, is ‘Ground Zero’ when it comes to the disturbing rising sea levels in and around Miami.
Alton Road is barely 85 centimetres above sea level. To cope with the problem, multiple water pumping stations, at a cost of 32 million dollars, are expected to be installed by the year-end. This problem now extends to millions of inhabitants, and many properties, in the low, marshy lands in southern Florida, a tourist paradise.
A federal assessment in May identified Miami as one of the cities most vulnerable to climate change. ”The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has projected that the water around Miami could rise 24 inches (60 centimetres) by 2060. The projections are alarming, particularly for a city like Miami Beach, which has an average elevation of 4.4 feet (1.3 metres),” said the Mayor, Philip Levine, before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, in a special session held in Miami in April.
Levine and many Florida politicians cannot afford to be skeptical about climate change; they are floundering in water and their very survival is at stake. The authorities at Miami Beach, a Mecca for sun and beach lovers, are very much aware that the floods, high tides and the rising subterranean water levels, pose a major problem. Scientists warn that extreme weather events, like storms, hurricanes and floods, will increase in frequency and strength. The work being conducted along Alton Road is only one of many steps being planned to fight the rising sea. This project, and other draining systems, will demand an investment to the order of 300 million dollars in the next five years.
With help from The Netherlands, a country that is expert in containing water, Miami Beach is also updating its network of levees. And it is not just a matter of floods. The over 40 kilometres of beaches surrounding Greater Miami are also being threatened; they are being eroded bit by bit. They are on a hurricane path, and the sand banks - used to replenish beaches - are being depleted. ”Your pledge to preserve this critical asset is imperative, in order to protect the future of our economy, infrastructure and residents,” Levine told the senators.
Miami authorities fear that tourism, the region’s economic motor, could be at risk. In 2013, Miami Beach welcomed 14.2 million visitors, who spent at least one night there and disbursed 22.8 billion dollars, according to City data.
About 45 per cent of tourists who arrived in the Greater Miami area in 2013 chose to spend time and money on the beaches, restaurants and the nightlife. Fred Bloetscher, an Associate Professor with the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering at Florida Atlantic University, also sounded the alarm bell before the committee. ”It is clear that the percentage of land that will be impacted on a daily basis will increase with time as the sea level rises,” he said. Bloetscher added that development of lower lying regions - which are not necessarily next to the coast - should now be avoided. He said that pumping systems, highways and the infrastructure must be redesigned, to face the incoming threat. A map of vulnerable areas must also be drawn up. ”Water levels are rising and will continue to rise, as the groundwater rises concurrently with the sea level. Add the impact of summer rains, and dealing with water will become a major priority,” Bloetscher said. Explaining the nature of the risk, he said that there would be an impact on six million people and 3.7 trillion dollars worth of properties in south-eastern Florida alone - the economic impact would be 260 billion dollars. “And everything is connected. Rising sea levels will likely increase the impact of hurricanes,” said Piers Sellers, Deputy Director of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre. 71 per cent of voters are already concerned about climate change, according to a recent survey by an environmental group, as part of the run up to the election for governor in the State. Democrat Charlie Christ, who will challenge incumbent Republican Rick Scott, has wielded the protection of the environment as his main political slogan - in tune with the policies of the Obama administration, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. But Governor Scott has shied away from the issue. “I’m not a scientist,” Scott has said. Scott, like most of the Republicans, appears not to buy the argument that human activity is at fault for climate change.
But human activity, through public works, is the only thing that will help the residents, shop owners and visitors. The State of Florida will have to soon act – though at huge financial expense - to protect itself.
Read More...