Paving the way to Habitat III: Building a Resilient South Florida

Miami Dade high school students present their solutions at a charrette that took place on May 25th

The United Nations assembly is meeting this October in Ecuador for Habitat III to discuss the New Urban Agenda, and to offer guidance points for cities to adapt and become resilient for the next 20 years. HUD Secretary Julián Castro is leading the U.S. delegation to Quito and as a result he decided to obtain local insight from different areas of the country. Miami became one of five selected sites where HUD convened local experts and on June 13th a set of panelists tackled different aspects on how to build a Resilient South Florida. The event, sponsored by the AARP Foundation, took place at the University of Miami School of Architecture.

The clear and supreme challenge to Florida with regard to building physical resilience is the projected sea level rise. The porous nature of the land makes building sea walls and levees a relatively fruitless enterprise. The seeping salt water from the ocean and gulf which threaten the fresh water system (so reliant on the Everglades) poses engineering puzzles which are difficult to solve. The water also bubbles up from the ground making inland flooding a major concern as well, particularly during high tides. Efforts are underway to mitigate these effects, and models being developed and implemented by Miami Dade County and the City of Miami Beach were discussed. View the panel presentations (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFqDgdJ8JDEwpPyv5ztyjMA).

Policymakers, academics, planners, and developers met on June 13th to discuss ways to build a resilient South Florida

Since Habitat III is about the future, the HUD Miami team decided to invite high school students. Several public magnet schools that deal with engineering, marine, agriculture and related topics responded. In preparation for the convening, they attended a student charrette (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njnz3KSm3gA) that took place on May 25th to provide students the opportunity to catch up with the concepts.

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