South Florida prepares for rising seas

David Fleshler in the Orlando Sentinel: A battle plan for an anticipated assault by seawater has been drafted by four South Florida counties, attempting to protect one of the nation's most vulnerable regions from the impact of climate change. The proposal by Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties calls for 108 actions to deal with rising sea levels and other consequences of global warming.

Among the steps: Redesigning low-lying roads to keep them above water, restricting development in vulnerable areas and relocating drinking-water wells inland to protect them from contamination by salt water. The plan contains no cost estimates.

Sea levels in South Florida could rise by one foot by 2040-2070 and two feet from 2060 to 2115, according to an analysis prepared by the scientific staff of the four counties, using federal, state and academic studies.

Palm Beach County Commission Chairwoman Shelley Vana said the draft Regional Climate Action Plan is an attempt to adapt early, allowing the region to armor itself against a more watery world as smartly and cheaply as possible.

"The bottom line is we need to have responsible planning in place to deal with whatever the future will be," she said. "We don't want to go out on a limb and panic, but we have to be responsible. It will have a much smaller impact on the way people live and what they have to pay to live that way than if we did nothing."

The plan calls for the designation of areas of particularly high vulnerability, called Adaptation Action Areas, which would have stricter building codes that would discourage development in the most vulnerable places, more spending on drainage systems and other infrastructure to protect property, and the acquisition of land for use as buffers....

Startled man ready to run after hurricane driven wave smashes into seawall, just north of Miami Beach, Florida in September, 1947