Miami: The next lost city of Atlantis? (Hollywood, Everglades: how much, live)

[miamiblue]

No, this is not a bash. The prospect of my hometown sometime in the distant future becoming the next lost city of Atlantis is really quite freaky and sad. However, it seems that Miami is the "city most vulnerable to the threat of rising sea levels."

You can find out how they made the determinations of which cities were most vulnerable here: MSN City Guides

What do you all think? If rising sea levels are a reality in the future, what will become of Miami?

[305guy]

Pretty interesting article. Maybe they'll come up with some kind of modern system to protect the low-lying areas of the city and by the time 2070 rolls around hopefully technology would have won out. But if the sea levels are rising I don't think there's much we can do other than plan for the worst...

I don't think it will affect current growth patterns as that day is hundreds of years away and alot of the cities on that list are huge metro areas that are growing. I just got a mental picture of thousands of people boarding cruise ships leaving Miami (like in a hollywood scene a-la The day after tomorrow) as the government tells everyone to evacuate since a huge storm will put Miami under for sure.

[copacetic]

The human race is remarkably innovative, and has solved tough problems when there was much less at stake than in this one. Keep your fingers crossed. Miami will be just fine.

[Dro420]

Hopefully, I'll be dead by the time anything catastrophic happens so I'm not too worried about that.

[tallrick]

It would be a improvement to Miami if it happened. Too bad none of us will be alive to enjoy the experience.

[Chelito23]

I know it is fun to think of Hollywood type of scnarios about how to disappear Miami, but it wouldn't go under water like you see on T.V., it would happen more along hte lines of this:

The lowest, farthest INLAND locations would first start to revert back to Everglades despite the canal system. The lowest areas would have standing water, eventually it would become brackish, open space would turn into estuary and swampy pockets, and the urbanized areas near the beaches would be pretty untouched.

As time goes by, the Everglades would turn into a more Florida Bay type ecosystem and the far western suburbs would be a brackish mangrove type swamp. Ultimately, if the water levels rose enough, Florida Bay and the Gulf will move up the Florida peninsula and reach areas west of the turnpike in Dade County first.

The older eastern sections are on a ridge and would be the last places to go under, literally. Not to say that those 15 feet of elevation would hold ground for long...

[copacetic]

Downtown and the Beach are pretty safe until around 7 meter rise in sea level. But at the 7 meter level, a good percentage of the eastern seaboard is also underwater, including large sections of Manhattan.

Check this:

Flood Maps

It's an interactive flood map, just choose your rise in sea level and it will give you the new map. You can zoom in to anywhere in the world.

[FFZS]

I have reviewed this web site and the data seems to have a error value of +/-4 to 5 meters (13 to 16 feet) in the florida area, this is a big error value--or it is not in metric but feet (makes more sense).

This means the oceans need to rise 7 feet and stay at 7 feet, probably will not happen, better chances for Miami to sink 7 feet.

As a professional, I rate this web site as a cartoon.

[xS☺B☺s]

Need a solution for beach erosion? I got one word for ya:

Sahara.

"Nuff said!

[miamiblue]

I actually think the article was more about how much would be lost should rising sea levels threaten the cities in question.

I am kind of wondering how a combination of even very slightly rising sea levels and a major hurricane + storm surge might present problems compared to current levels. Will even a very slight rise in sea level create a storm surge that will affect a larger area?

Chelito, your post got me thinking. Really, most of the Miami area is reclaimed swampland. I wonder what kind of stress the canal system is designed to handle. I know that it is not going to be a Hollywood style catastrophy (thank goodness), but I do have to wonder about some of the residential areas that have technically been built in drained areas of the Everglades, should a major flooding event occur. I honestly don't think it was socially responsible for those areas to be developed, especially into residential developments.