Municipal Adaptation to Sea-Level Rise: City of Satellite Beach, Florida
This document provides the results of a municipal sea-level rise vulnerability assessment conducted for Satellite Beach, Florida. Based on conservative modeling estimates, the city is at high risk of inundation from both sea-level rise and storm surge, and adaptive action is strongly recommended.
The sea-level rise assessment was undertaken in three steps:
- development of a three-dimensional model or “base map” of the City,
- compilation and mapping of critical infrastructure and assets, and
- quantification of the extent to which the City and it’s critical assets would be inundated by sea-level rise.
Model results indicate that the City will lose 5% of its landscape during the initial two feet of sea-level rise, and this loss will be limited to fringing wetlands and canals. However, a rise of four feet is forecast to submerge an additional 20% of the City, including residential neighborhoods, important transportation corridors, and numerous critical assets. Based primarily upon the City’s hypsographic curve, the “tipping point” towards catastrophic inundation is a total sea-level rise of six feet, forecast to occur around 2050. The assessment states that because engineering and retreat solutions are not feasible on a barrier island like Satellite Beach, the City will likely respond through adaptive management.
The City's Comprehensive Planning Advisory Board has approved a series of adaptation-related updates and revisions to the City’s Comprehensive Plan. If approved by the City Council, the amendments will provide a legal basis for implementing an adaptive management plan and specific actions to mitigate the City’s vulnerability to sea-level rise.
Publication Date: July 18, 2010
Related Organizations:
- City of Satellite Beach, Florida
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- Assessment
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