Miami, Florida

Climate Change in Miami

Miami’s population has been steadily rising, regardless of the rising sea level.  Since 2016, the population has risen from 441,003 to 473,914 for an increase of  around 7.5% in 3 years.  Around 75% white, the second largest demographic in Miami is black or African American (18% of population).

The average age in Miami is 40 years old (39.1 for males, 40.9 for females).  The ratio between women and men is fairly close to 1 (223,998 females:219,009 males).  With 17.9% of the population under the age of 18, 6.2% under 5, around 1 in every 5 people are classified as children.  This is the fifth of the population that will have the most time on this planet and have to deal with the long term effects of climate change.  Educating the youth on why and how climate change takes place is a crucial step in slowing down climate change.  Although this in an important thing to do, Miami has little youth interaction when it comes to developing ways to make the city more climate change resilient.

Efforts to Mitigate Rising Sea Levels

Problem: Flooded Roads

The main issue that Miami has been struggling dealing with climate change is the issue of flooded roads.  This is a common occurrence, especially during the hurricane season and high tides. 

Recently, the city of Miami has created a team called the Blue Ribbon Panel on Flood Mitigation to head the climate change movement in Miami and help come up with solutions to the rising sea levels.  The main goal for this team was to “dry the street up”. One of the solutions that have been implemented to combat rising sea levels and regular flooding of the streets are

water pumps that transport the water from the streets back out into the ocean.  These pumps have had some issues with becoming backlogged and then basically working in the opposite direction, bringing water in from the ocean and dumping it on the street.This issue has been resolved by raising and expanding the pumps themselves, ensuring that the electrical boxes stay dry at all times. There are 60 new pump stations that are scheduled to be installed throughout Miami and Miami Beach over the next 3-5 years.

Another solution that is currently underway in Miami Beach is the raising of the roads in the Sunset Harbor and West Avenue neighborhoods.  This began in the Sunset Harbor neighborhood in February 2015 and was 70% completed as of April 2016. In most places, the street was raised 2+ feet.

Sources

• • https://www.miamirealestateguy.com/miami-beach-to-raise-west-avenue-1-to-2-feet-to-combat-rising-sea/
  • https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/miamicityflorida,miamidadecountyflorida/PST045218