Miami faces serious challenges in the face of climate change: will a checkpoint prevent the city from sinking underwater?

Global warming is causing sea level to rise. Coastal cities, like Miami, they are exposed to seeing a good part of its streets underwater. It is expected that by 2070 the sea level will rise from half a meter to one meter. In Miami, currently, the sea level is rising by five centimeters per year. The problem is real.

Some of the proposals to prevent this from happening, or continuing to happen, they include building a wall to act as a barrier.

The United States Federal Government is trying to be proactive about the issues that global warming will generate in your country in the years to come. One of the main conflicts is linked to the rise in sea level due to melting at the poles, which gives ground to water on land, causing flooding.

Coastal cities like Miami are prone to this phenomenon. Indeed, floods are more and more frequent. And while the city has its own projects – which include a series of pumps that constantly draw water and a bonus of $ 200 million for infrastructure that allows so-called climate adaptation– The federal government has a fundamental role.

Three years ago, at the initiative of the Washington government, a study was carried out to indicate what could be done to prevent these floods. The answer was given by the Army Corps of Engineers: build a wall over 20 feet high in Biscayne Bay -or parallel to it- which serves as a barrier against water. The problem? Not everyone wants this to happen, among other things, as it would cover part of the view of Miami Dade, one of the area’s top attractions.

Depending on the project, it would be about 10 kilometers of wall, mainly in the town parallel to the bay, With the exception of a one-mile stretch up to the city’s financial center, Brickell, where it would be built directly over the water.

The project would cost $ 6 billion and, if it’s done, it would only be five years from now.

It is clear that a wall would not solve the causes of what generates the increase in the water level, but it would be a solution to the consequence, which are floods.

While this mega-project is the subject of debate, the city of Miami is taking action on a smaller scale. For example, in recent years, the construction standards of the neighborhoods bordering the bay of Biscayne, which increases the need to elevate buildings. Others are as simple as encouraging tree planting. 4,000 trees were planted in Miami last year. Each tree, once grown, can absorb 100 gallons of water per day, helping to solve the flooding problem.

The rising sea situation is worrying and, at least so far, it seems inevitable. But beyond this problem which will take years, Miami is already facing a conflict with the floods. Whenever it rains, in coastal areas like Brickell and Miami Beach, the accumulated water can last for days. It is not a question of believing if this problem will arise, but of finding a way to avoid what has already been experienced.

Read on: