Shimon Wdowinski, Ronald Bray, Ben P. Kirtman, Zhaohua Wu

Ocean & Coastal Management

Published date June 1, 2016

Increasing flooding hazard in coastal communities due to rising sea level: Case study of Miami Beach, Florida

  • Finds that flooding frequency in Miami Beach increased significantly since 2006, mostly due to high tide events
  • Finds the average rate of sea level rise in Southeast Florida increased from 3 ± 2 mm/yr prior to 2006 to 9 ± 4 mm/yr after 2006
  • Finds that increasing sea level in the Miami area correlates with weakening of the entire Gulf Stream system (decrease in kinetic energy)
  • States that engineering solutions to SLR should rely on regional sea level rise rate projections and not only on the commonly used global SLR projections