By 2100 sea level will have: 1) inundated much of coastal and interior Miami-Dade
County, 2) seriously degraded freshwater availability county wide, and 3) changed the
climate from a terrestrial to an oceanic process dominated system. Projected sea level rise
will also result in ecological problems as anthropogenic altered areas are inundated. The
IPCC (2007) has made global sea level rise projections to provide guidance for the next
100yrs but no detailed local information.
In order to better understand the meaning of various sea level scenarios, LIDAR data
collected by the FIU/IHRC (2004) was used to map the physical impact of rising sea
level on the coastal zone of Miami-Dade County. Because the data set overlaps the
eastern edge of the historical Everglades, it is also possible to examine the effect there
and to understand how the transverse glades will facilitate a change from a freshwater
dominated system to a marine one.