Some of the most pivotal climate-change questions \u2014 and potential solutions \u2014 focus on Florida.<\/p>\n
The Sunshine State, with its low elevation and 825 miles of shoreline, make it one of the planet\u2019s most vulnerable locations for both sea-level rise and intensified weather events.<\/p>\n
So the state took center stage during the second annual Aspen Ideas: Climate conference, calling attention to some of the latest advancements: Wind and wave simulators that help make crucial findings about storms. Concrete hexagonal tubes that cities place off shore to help break up storm surge. A new housing development that withstands hurricanes \u2014 without losing power or internet.<\/p>\n
The event, which ended Thursday, gathered 300 speakers to the Miami Beach Convention Center and the New World Center along with business leaders, conservationists and journalists.<\/p>\n
Here are some of the key takeaways from the conference.<\/p>\n
Imagine a wind tunnel that can create Category-5 wind velocity, then put a 25-yard-long pool inside. The pool is see-through for optimal study, and has a sloping bottom that can be shaped to emulate various shorelines \u2014 relatively steep, like Florida\u2019s east coast, or gradual, the state\u2019s west coast.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s essentially what professor Brian K. Haus and his team at the University of Miami\u2019s SUSTAIN Lab on Virginia Key get to play with every day. The facility, a wind-wave-storm simulator, lets them study the way wind, sea and shorelines interact.<\/p>\n
They can create scale models of shoreline and infrastructure and blast it with storm forces to watch surge reactions, or they can blast life-size reef or mangrove structures with storm forces and determine their protective value.<\/p>\n
When Haus turned on the wind and waves for Aspen Idea participants visiting the facility, the tank rippled violently with 3-foot waves that would equal 30-foot swells in real life.<\/p>\n
He said one of the most crucial findings has to do with water friction.<\/p>\n
\u201cFriction from the ocean does not slow down wind as much as previously thought,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The tank revealed that once wind gets over a certain speed, water drag dissipates<\/a> and stops slowing the storm. The findings have changed hurricane forecast models regarding how quickly hurricanes can build strength and speed \u2014 important factors in determining when a storm will hit, and how deadly it might be.<\/p>\n Across the hall at the Coral Reef Futures Lab, senior research associate Liv Williamson walked the attendees into a room full of shallow tanks lined with rows of what could be mistaken for underwater cookies. Each one was a growing live coral, bred to withstand the perils of the planet\u2019s hot future.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a 90% loss of Florida\u2019s corals,\u201d said Williamson as a primer to why she and her colleagues are attempting to toughen up these beautiful marine organisms.<\/p>\n Florida\u2019s southeast coast is rimmed by a 350-mile reef that has been damaged by bleaching<\/a>, a process in which high water temperatures cause the corals to expel the symbiotic algae they rely on for photosynthetic nutrition. Without it they whiten, weaken, and often die.<\/p>\n Coral reefs not only provide vital habitat for hundreds of species of marine life, she explained, many of which are commercially valuable, but the reefs, which tend to grow in shallow water, help shield civilization from violent hurricane storm surge.<\/p>\n Her program selectively breeds corals to withstand hot water better, and outplants them on nearby reefs to study their success.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just nature buffs who are keen on its success. The Department of Defense is also working with the school with the hopes that can use coral breakwaters around their military installations as a shield against the violent storms of the future.<\/p>\n To many observers, South Florida is a canary in a coal mine regarding sea-level rise and hurricane intensity. Two panels looked at innovative infrastructure ideas that could help the region and other vulnerable areas, such as New York, brace for the coming century of climate change.<\/p>\n Rodolphe el-Khoury, dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture, started one panel by saying that design is where the action is, particularly in innovations that combine gray infrastructure (human-made water controls structures such as seawalls and breakwaters) and green infrastructure (using ecosystems, or nature as infrastructure).<\/p>\n Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, assistant professor of architectural engineering at University of Miami, explained the ECoREEF project he\u2019s working on that combines the two, to provide quick protection for humans and benefits to nature.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat if we provided nature with a platform that dissipates wave energy and gives us the fertile ground for corals to grow?\u201d asks Barbarigos.<\/p>\n To give natural reefs a head start, Barbarigos has developed concrete hexagonal tubes, 19 feet long and 6 feet tall, that cities can place off shore. They break up wave energy and storm surge, but are made of a material and texture where coral can be attached and thrive.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s build a breakwater that\u2019s going to become a living breakwater, so we\u2019re going to transplant corals and monitor the ecological growth, and the engineering performance.\u201d He and his team installed a set of the hexagons off Surfside last Wednesday, and will cover the surfaces with live corals that can grow 4 inches a year. It\u2019s essentially a living breakwater that will grow over time, to protect shorelines even more rigorously. They\u2019ll also attract food chains of sea life to the shoreline.<\/p>\n Designer Kate Orff, founding principal and partner at SCAPE, a landscape architecture and urban design practice, is the woman who was tasked with protecting New York City with a living breakwater after the destruction of 2012\u2032s Hurricane Sandy.<\/p>\n She and her team created the Living Breakwaters<\/a>, a 1.5-mile necklace of living breakwaters off the coast of Staten Island. The breakwaters reduce risk, help rebuild the shoreline, and stop a collapse of marine life by creating pockets, such as tidal pools, and graduated water depths, to enhance biodiversity. At the time of her project, the oyster population in the New York area was about 1% of its historic range.<\/p>\n The breakwaters, designed for sea life, are seeded with oysters, which filter the water.<\/p>\n Oyster populations blossomed on Orff\u2019s project and others around the city, making water clearer. Other regulations have brought baitfish, and the predatory fish and dolphins that eat them, back to New York Harbor. Even whales have shown up.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most resilience will come from a robust, living, thick, three-dimensional landscape,\u201d she said, \u201cand if we invest in those landscapes, we will be better.\u201d<\/p>\n Orff warns that a vertical bulkhead seawall is easy and fast, but what happens when you have sea-level rise against it? \u201cWe\u2019ve lost intertidal habitat, we\u2019ve lost fish nurseries, we\u2019ve lost seagrass, we\u2019ve lost reefs, we\u2019ve lost this rich three-dimensional mosaic of shorelines that actually create life in the marine world. It\u2019s quite easy to do the wrong thing,\u201d she said. Her efforts are a way to build a bridge so life on earth can sustain itself, and so we can hold on, too.<\/p>\n Projects like this alone are insufficient, she said. \u201cI feel like the very difficult things to do are truly behavioral and policy changes on a federal, state and local level. She mentioned the seagrass die-off in Biscayne Bay, and said that until we reduce nutrient load that prompts die-offs, we can\u2019t succeed. \u201cWe need to have incredibly difficult conversions about what we need to stop doing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody\u2019s watching what\u2019s going on in Miami,\u201d she said, based on her projects in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n Another panel discussed the recent proposal by the Army Corps of Engineers to build a monolithic seawall that cuts through both Biscayne Bay and nearshore neighborhoods to protect Miami from an eventual massive hurricane. The community rejected the project in favor of something that would incorporate a combination of gray and green infrastructure. The coming months will determine just what happens with the project.<\/p>\n On Sept. 23, the eastern eyewall of Hurricane Ian sat on top of Babcock Ranch<\/a>, a new housing development just east of Fort Myers, for eight hours, with sustained winds of 100 mph and gusts to up to 150 mph. \u201cI was sitting in my house and it was like a perpetual freight train running right through us,\u201d said Sydney Kitson, Babcock Ranch resident and CEO Kitson & Partners, the firm that planned the development.<\/p>\n After the storm passed, Kitson and others emerged to discover that the development never lost power, water or internet.<\/p>\n Babcock Ranch, which is powered entirely by solar, was designed for resilience, said Kitson as he spoke to the crowd on the final day of the conference. The 150-megawatt solar facility has 700,000 panels, and weathered the hurricane well.<\/p>\n Kitson took a rare approach to developing land. The firm bought the 91,000-acre ranch in 2006, and sold 73,000 acres of it to Florida \u2014 the largest land purchase in states history. That land became part of the Florida Wildlife Corridor, a swath of wilderness running up the state and connecting national parks, state parks and private ranches. The corridor allows crucial wildlife such as Florida panthers, black bear and deer to travel and avoid inbreeding due to isolation.<\/p>\n The development, or \u201ctown\u201d as Kitson calls it, will eventually have 20,000 homes and 55,000 people on 18,000 acres, half of which is preserved, meaning 90% of the original land is protected in some way.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal was to prove that a new town and the environment can work hand-in-hand,\u201d he said. Storm safety was also paramount, he said.<\/p>\n Babcock\u2019s ability to withstand Hurricane Ian began with location choice. Kitson said Babcock is 30 feet above storm surge level \u2014 a very intentional choice. \u201cWe decided to work with nature rather than against it,\u201d he said of the master plan.<\/p>\n Architects studied historic water flow in the area and built drainage to mimic it, and allowed space for wetlands throughout the community.<\/p>\n They built roads and homes around nature\u2019s pre-existing fingerprint.<\/p>\n The result is \u201ca massive amount of surface water storage that was incredibly helpful (during the hurricane),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve also got a wastewater facility hardened for high wind, and underground power lines. All buildings meet Florida Green Building Coalition<\/a> standards. Kitson also praised Florida\u2019s strong building codes, which evolved after the destruction of Hurricane Andrew<\/a> in 1992.<\/p>\n \u201cDoes this cost more? Yes it does,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a great investment. The cost is nominal in comparison with the loss of property, the loss of productivity and the loss of life. New technology is going to make this a safer world,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s good news for our kids and grandkids.\u201d<\/p>\n ——-<\/p>\n (This story was produced in partnership with the Florida Climate Reporting Network<\/a>, a multi-newsroom initiative<\/a> founded by the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media and the Tampa Bay Times.) <\/p>\n ——-<\/p>\nCan infrastructure innovation save Florida?<\/h3>\n
How a solar-powered development survived Hurricane Ian<\/h3>\n