Several times a year, the residents of Miamis Shorecrest neighborhood look out their windows to find that their streets are flooded. Again. The neighborhood sits on Miamis Biscayne Bay, where sea levels are rising about an inch every few years, and it fills up with water during high tides. The sewage-laden water comes up through the storm drains, filling the streets, and rising up around the tires of residents cars, making it impossible to drive. If a tidal flood happens in the morning, commuters are out of luckthey either stay at home, or risk getting stuck in saltwater on their way downtown.
This phenomenon is known as nuisance flooding, and its becoming more common in coastal cities as sea levels rise. The catastrophic consequences of climate change have become even clearer over the past few years as a succession of billion-dollar disasters have struck the United States. Yet, the commuting disruptions in cities like Miami show how the climate crisis will alter the patterns of everyday life as well. As driving to work gets harder and harder, the rising seas will devalue properties and imperil even those workers who live on high ground. In the absence of near-term infrastructure improvements like roadway elevation and climate-sensitive traffic planning, the flooding will worsen the gap between white-collar and blue-collar workers.
Urban planners in cities like Miami designed the built environment of the waterfront according to their estimates of normal tidal cycles: If the water rises so high on the average day, the planners built streets and bulkheads a little higher. In many cities, though, these estimates are decades out of date: The sea level around Miami has risen about a foot over the past century, which makes a big difference in a city with many neighborhoods that sit just 3 or 4 feet above sea level.
[Photo: Carl Juste/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service/Getty Images]Were already seeing the cumulative effect of this long-term change. A paper published last year in the journal Environmental Research estimated that sea-level rise between 2002 and 2017 increased the average annual commute time in Miami by 15 minutes, by blocking main arteries along the waterfront. In the worst-affected neighborhoods, where residential-neighborhood flooding created widespread delays, the disruptions lengthened commutes by more than 4 hours. The paper estimates that under the current flood landscape, about 14,000 commuters may be unable to reach their workplaces one or more times each year.
The paper also estimated that commuting disruptions could get worse over the next few decades. Mathew Hauer, a sociology professor at Florida State University and the lead author of the study, found that under the highest sea-level-rise projections, average annual commuting delays would exceed 4 hours, and more than 55,000 commuters would face an impassable trip.
Its not just people who are on [Miami] Beach and trying to commute somewhere, Hauer says. You have people commuting into the Beach as well, in which case they experience it, and people commuting through the Beach, who have to go through an area thats flooding. Their home street might not flood, their work street might not, but in between they encounter flooding.
This routine flooding has direct consequences not only for commuters quality of life, but also for their economic stability. Take, for instance, the gambling hub of Atlantic City. It sits on a shoreline barrier island, but many casino workers commute in from the mainland, driving 3 miles on roadways that are subject to frequent flooding when tides are high. As flood events become more severe, a large section of the gambling industrys labor force will find itself shut out from work dozens of times a year. For workers who earn an hourly wage, or whose bosses arent forgiving about lateness, flooding could spell serious financial trouble.
The situation is similar on the opposite coast in the cities north of San Francisco. According to California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), sea-level rise by 2050 could entirely inundate state road Route 37, which runs next to San Pablo Bay, severing a vital link between dense East Bay communities like Vallejo and the wine tourism regions of Napa and Sonoma. Already, the road closes about 10 times a year due to flooding. There are no alternate routes around the northern circumference of the Bay. The impact of frequent flooding on this route would be severe for both the workers heading to Napa and Sonoma and the wineries dependent on their labor.
Commuting disruptions can also make existing traffic snarls worse. Thats happening in Miami, affecting even areas without routine residential flooding. One of our main challenges here is traffic, says Katherine Hagemann, resilience program manager for Miami-Dade County, who helps coordinate the countys climate adaptation measures. We have had a tremendous amount of growth as a city, growth . . . that is very oriented around the car. That growth has definitely led to trafficthats just kind of our baseline condition. So when we have tidal flooding, that creates big issues.
The worst disruptions come during so-called king tides, once or twice a year occurrences when the gravitational forces of the sun and moon combine to create the highest-tide events. Such effects have occurred in cities like Boston, where a king tide in 2019 forced walking commuters to take off their shoes as they waded through downtown puddles; and in Norfolk, Virginia, where a king tide last year filled residential streets and trapped cars in their driveways.
Sunny-day floods of this magnitude are still infrequent, but 10 years from now that might not be the case. The orbital wobble of the moon means that some decades see much higher tidal variation than others. The next period of higher-than-average tides will arrive in the mid-2030s, by which point the oceans will have risen another few inches around coastal cities. Research suggests the two trends will compound each other and make large-scale tidal floods even more common, possibly extending the events as long as a month.
The good news is that municipalities like Miami still have time to mitigate the impacts of these floods. The first and most basic solution is to elevate critical roadways, something President Bidens new infrastructure bill should help fund. These measures arent always popular, though, even with people theyre intended to protect, For instance, one group of residents in Miami Beach sued the city for raising roads by as much as 2 feet, claiming that the project pushed flood water into their yards. Theres also the possibility that rapid sea-level rise could require the city to raise roads again in 50 years.
If we cant raise roads above the height of adjacent property, we can put in drainage, and try and pump the water off the street faster, but that has limitations too, says Hagemann. One option detailed in the countys sea-level rise strategy is to live with a little bit more floodingin other words, she says, to make sure everything thats important, like houses and fire stations, remains dry, and tolerate a little flooding everywhere else. Employers would need to get more flexible about work attendance on flood days, and the city would need to invest in congestion relief on alternative routes, but a little expectation-setting could go a long way toward reducing the number of people who get stuck on waterlogged roads.
Another solution would be to identify and expand alternate routes, giving commuters other options on days when certain roads are impassable. In the case of the Bay Areas Route 37, for instance, CalSTA has considered expanding bus and rail lines. In the meantime, public communication is paramount: the city of Miami Beach has created an app that alerts commuters when roads are out of service due to flooding. The city of Miami also offers free parking passes to residents in neighborhoods like Shorecrest, allowing them to move their cars at no charge during high tides.
In the absence of significant infrastructure and policy solutions, though, most of the adaptation to sea-level rise will be voluntary, as frustrated commuters either spend more time working from home or relocate to areas with better road access. Hauer says this kind of response will be far more available to high-income earners whose jobs allow for remote work or who can afford to move. In that way, the response will look a lot like the remote-work divide of the early pandemic, wherein white-collar workers stayed home and low-income earners went to work.
But the biggest takeaway, he says, is that climate adaptation is no longer something that can continue to be deferred to the future.
Oftentimes, we talk about sea-level rise happening way off in 2100, he says, and we neglect the fact that these impacts are happening already in a lot of areas. People are already dealing with this.
Jake Bittle is a reporter who lives in Brooklyn. His book about climate migration is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster.
See the original post:
Rising sea levels flood streets and snarl commutes, even when there's - Fast Company
- EU votes to ratify landmark High Seas Treaty - Euronews - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Cruise ship industry is booming despite spate of high-seas deaths - New York Post - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- The Indian seafarer deserves better in choppy high seas - The Hindu - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Pharrell Takes To The High Seas For Louis Vuitton Pre-Fall 2024 | Fashion - Clash Magazine - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- When it comes to fighting sea pirates, bones don't lie - Deccan Herald - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Seabirds spend nearly 40% of their time on high seas, study finds - NIWA - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- High seas drama: Cruise ship bound for Bahamas is diverted to Portland - Mainebiz - December 22nd, 2023 [December 22nd, 2023]
- African Ports Overwhelmed By Red Sea Reroutings - gCaptain - December 22nd, 2023 [December 22nd, 2023]
- Party Pirates: A Hilarious Co-op Adventure on the High Seas - Game Is Hard - December 22nd, 2023 [December 22nd, 2023]
- Boat sinks in high seas off Malpe, eight fishermen rescued - Public TV English - December 22nd, 2023 [December 22nd, 2023]
- Arena's Swept Away is a Dark Tale on the High Seas with Music by Grammy Winners The Avett Brothers - The Zebra - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- Money Memories: Finances on the high seas - Louisville Public Media - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- The Arctic Sunrise II Does the ISA have 'enforcement jurisdiction' on the High Seas? - EJIL: Talk! - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- Severe Weather Impacting Multiple Cruise Ships - Cruise Hive - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- Taking to the high seas for an up-close look at South Fork Wind - theday.com - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- High Waves and Rough Seas Forecast for Costa Rica Coasts - The Tico Times - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- Diesel theft on the high seas: When international cargo ships meet fishing boats in the dead of night - The Indian Express - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- Meet the couple who've been on more than 200 cruises - and love life on the high seas so much they're selling - Daily Mail - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- Report to Congress on the U.N. Law of the Sea Convention - USNI ... - USNI News - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Simplifying Docker Installation on Linux - Linux Journal - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Mallory to Present 'Oceans Apart: Global Governance Approaches to ... - University of Arkansas Newswire - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- NEWS: A NEW 'Moana' Show Is Coming to the Disney Treasure ... - AllEars.Net - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Things to do Oct. 13-19 in the Chicago suburbs, Northwest Indiana - Chicago Tribune - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Marine "Biomimetics" Could Be the Blue Economy's Next Big Hit - The Maritime Executive - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- All eyes on France this Saturday evening - Offaly Independent - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- 80s-themed cruise: A blast to the past with P&O's high-sea adventure - New Zealand Herald - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- High seas glamour: what its like to cruise the world with Cunard - Executive Traveller - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Warfare MMO Foxhole is adding naval combat complete with huge ... - PC Gamer - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- One Piece Season 2 Cast: Every Character Expected to Appear - The Direct - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- The future of Portuguese football: the pitch, the pixels, and the promise - PortuGOAL.net - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Typhoon Koinu to cause high winds, rough waters in East Sea - VietNamNet - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Governing our seas using core principles of sustainability - Mail and Guardian - September 19th, 2023 [September 19th, 2023]
- Marine Medium Speed Engine Oil Market: Navigating the High Seas ... - Digital Journal - September 19th, 2023 [September 19th, 2023]
- Threats on the high seas and the Pak-Saudi partnership - Arab News Pakistan - September 19th, 2023 [September 19th, 2023]
- China Wants to Burn Out Southeast Asian Navies - Foreign Policy - September 19th, 2023 [September 19th, 2023]
- Sea of Thieves Will Have to Face the Reaper Sooner or Later - GameRant - September 19th, 2023 [September 19th, 2023]
- Whine Wednesdays: Pigs On The High Seas Disgusting Behavior ... - LoyaltyLobby - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Carnival Now Looks in Ship Shape for the High Seas - RealMoney - RealMoney - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Why a new UN treaty to safeguard the high seas matters | Mint - Mint - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Navigating Unfairness on the High Seas: Class Action Waiver Clauses - Lexology - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- High-Seas Search for 39 Crewmembers of Capsized Chinese ... - The Maritime Executive - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The Wager by David Grann review a rollicking and nuanced history of the high seas - The Guardian - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- A musician from Sauk Prairie sees the world on the high seas - WiscNews - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- How to obtain The Major-General minion in Final Fantasy XIV - Fanbyte - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- ShipRocked 2024: Artist Lineup Revealed For Hard Rockin Adventure On The High Seas! - Icon Vs. Icon - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Local playwright's Hollerwood show premiers at West T. Hill - The ... - Interior Journal - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Meth worth several thousand crores seized from high seas by Indian Navy, NCB - The News Minute - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Salute to Sailors: Navy employs technology and training to ready sailors - WHP Harrisburg - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The Ocean Race Summit Newport urges recognition of the inherent ... - The Ocean Race - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Max Reveals All of the New Titles Coming to It's Platform In May ... - Just Jared Jr. - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Fisheries: agreement reached on sustainable management of ... - Oceans and fisheries - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- United Arab Emirates formally accepts Agreement on Fisheries ... - WTO Latest News - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Murky Tar Balls Reappear on Goa's Golden Beaches | Weather.com - The Weather Channel - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Study: Fishing Subsidies Support Unregulated Distant-Water Fishing - The Maritime Executive - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The Rings Of Power's Morfydd Clark Hints At 'Quite A Lot Of New ... - Looper - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Chris Armstrong Short Cuts: High Seas Fishing LRB 18 May 2023 - London Review of Books - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- It's Chaos on the High Seas in New 'The Meg 2' Poster - Collider - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- From South Dakota to the high seas, the world gets less transparent - Coda Story - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Stepping up action - Nature.com - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Stricken Shiling tipped to return to Wellington the scene of its ... - Stuff - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Secretary ... - The White House - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Bangladesh: Dangerous Cyclone Mocha expected to make landfall ... - Save the Children International - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Stricken 294-metre Shiling tipped to return to Wellington - the scene ... - Stuff.co.nz - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Sneak peek: Inside Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship ever - The Points Guy - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War' is Celebrating Its 6th ... - Touch Arcade - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Is Deck 1 on a Cruise Ship Bad - Pros and Cons - Cruise Hive - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- US-Iran nuclear struggle is playing out on the high seas - The Telegraph - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Muscle Flexing In South China Sea: Why India-ASEAN War Games Send A Strong Signal To Beijing - ABP Live - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Everybody Has a Story: Surviving rough ride in a smelly ship - The Columbian - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Holiday warning over Majorca party boats loved by Brits as officials vow massive new crackdown... - The US Sun - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Dark waters: how the adventure of a lifetime turned to tragedy - The Guardian - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Guarding our seas and the blue economy - Philstar.com - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Driverless boats, enduring sensors on the special ops maritime menu - Defense News - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- List Of The Cleanest Cruise Ships In The World (2023) - Cruise Mummy - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Sea of Survivors: What if Vampire Survivors and Sea of Thieves had ... - Windows Central - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- All hands on deck as UN meets to protect high seas - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- 'High Seas' Season 4 Canceled at Netflix Even After Initial Renewal - January 22nd, 2023 [January 22nd, 2023]
- 'High Seas' Netflix Review: Stream It or Skip It? - Decider - January 22nd, 2023 [January 22nd, 2023]
- What Is High Seas Governance? - National Oceanic and Atmospheric ... - January 22nd, 2023 [January 22nd, 2023]
- Move Over Disney: Carnival Is Grooming on the High Seas - December 23rd, 2022 [December 23rd, 2022]