Designing Ports for Rising Seas: PortMiami’s Approach to Staying Afloat

Seaports are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and storms due to their proximity to the coastline, expansion on artificial fill, and historical development under relatively stable sea level conditions. They are also complex facilities with characteristics that pose challenges to their adaptation. Ports contain numerous asset types with varying degrees of vulnerability, depend on regional transportation networks, and need to adapt to changing environmental conditions while maintaining operational functionality for current sea level and post-storm conditions. Strong policy, planning, and/or design guidance is necessary in the ports industry to adequately integrate sea level rise (SLR) considerations into the design of ports and their infrastructure. This paper describes the challenges of addressing SLR for ports through the lens of PortMiami, discusses a framework for evaluating potential SLR impacts on port assets and operations, provides an adaptation strategy toolbox to incorporate SLR preparedness into capital project planning and design, and presents an example incorporating future sea level conditions into the design of a major bulkhead replacement project at PortMiami.