Sustainability

Habitat for wildlife that once was high and dry continues to have seawater encroach on the lands. Rising seas have begun to affect some roads and other County infrastructure, as well as some homes and businesses – and will continue to do so into the future.

The Board of County Commissioners approved hiring a sustainability director, now known as the Chief Resilience Officer, in 2012. The director’s job is to address sustainability and climate change issues, manage a comprehensive canal restoration project to improve the County’s water quality, and monitor the solid waste and recycling program to help the Florida Keys become more green and sustainable.

In 2017, the Office of Sustainability began the ’Year One’ projects listed in the Monroe County GreenKeys Sustainability Action Plan. The larger projects include:

• Mobile LiDAR data elevation project: The office is improving the elevation data on the County’s roads and facilities. Before the County can accurately project the effects of sea-level rise on the County’s roads, the County must first have accurate data on the exact elevation of all 300 miles of County roads.
• Countywide roads analysis: This project, which began in 2018, identifies near-term roads subject to inundation risk, including nuisance flooding. The elevation data from the mobile LiDAR work will be used in the engineering analysis phase of this project.

Keys Roads Plan

As part of the County’s proactive sustainability approach, this project is to merge climate change science and modeling, with transportation engineering and planning to develop a long-term roads adaptation plan based on design criteria, SLR projections, adaptation methodology, policy/financing evaluation, and public/stakeholder outreach.  The primary objective of the project is to analyze the impacts of current and projected levels of SLR on all County Maintained roads and stormwater features, and to develop an implementation plan and timeline to adapt roads and drainage for future SLR. The results will also be used to determine new policy considerations and design criteria for what acceptable levels of service should be for County maintained roads. 

The data initially collected lays the foundation of information for the analysis and concept development. 

• Final Report
• Appendix A: Mobile LiDAR Accuracy Assessment
• Appendix B: Database and Elevation Analysis
• Appendix C: Roadway Assessment and Condition Survey
• Appendix D: Roadway Storm Drain Data Collection
• Appendix E: Environmental Permitting Constraints
• Appendix F: Sea-Level Rise Projections
• Appendix G: King Tide and Wind Setup Memo
• Appendix H: Storm Surge and Extreme Events
• Appendix I: Numerical Modeling
• Appendix J: Vulnerability Assessment and Inundation Maps
• Appendix K: Prioritization of Roadway Segments
• Latest Presentation (June 2022)

More information on Keys Roads Plan, visit https://www.keysroadsplan.com/. 

County Adopts Unified Sea Level Rise Projection for Southeast Florida

The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners adopted the updated Unified Regional Sea Level Rise Projections of the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact and directed staff to utilize the updated projections as the basis for future sea-level rise adaptation planning activities. This action provides the Board with sea-level rise projections and a support document to guide risk assessments and sea-level rise adaptation planning county-wide and in coordination with the region of southeast Florida. The County is using these revised projections in its Roads Adaptation Study, which is currently underway.

This is the third technical Regionally Unified Sea Level Rise Projection document that has been produced that is updated every four to five years by the Climate Compact technical team. The team consists of members from the academic community, federal agencies, local government staff, and includes the most up-to-date, peer-reviewed literature, and climate modeling data.

Estimates of sea-level rise are provided from the baseline year of 2000, and the planning horizon has been extended to 2120, in response to climate scenarios by federal agencies extending beyond the year 2100 and the need for planning for infrastructure with design lives greater than 50 years.

Sea level measured at the Key West gauge has risen approximately 3.9 inches from 2000 to 2017. According to the graph, the mean sea level rise is projected to be the following:

• 10 to 17 inches from 2000 to 2040 (sea levels have already risen 4 inches through 2017, this means a net additional 6 to 13 inches is projected from 2018 to 2040.)
• 21 to 54 inches from 2000 to 2070 (sea levels have already risen 4 inches through 2017, this means a net additional 17 to 50 inches from 2018 to 2070.)
• 40 to 136 inches by 2120

The projection considers regional effects, such as thermal expansion from the warming of the Florida Current, that produce differences in Southeast Florida’s rate of sea-level rise compared to other areas in global projections. The NOAA extreme curve is displayed on the Unified Regional Sea Level Rise Projection for informational purposes but is not recommended for design.

The climate is changing, manifesting in significant impacts for the Southeast Florida region, including increasing average temperatures, more intense storm events, and rising sea levels. The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact is the result of Miami-Dade, Monroe, Palm Beach, and Broward counties recognizing the need to create a regionally unified program to ensure consistency in planning and policy in the four-county area.

• Full Sea Level Rise Projection Report
• Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Assessment, June 2021

In June 2020, Monroe County hosted a sea-level rise workshop. 

• Whitney Gray Presentation
• DeAngelo Presentation
• Sweet Presentation
• Stormwater Regulations for Roads Elevation Projects
• Roads Elevation Study Update, June 2021

Canal Restoration Program 

In 2014, Monroe County embarked on a Canal Restoration Program after a study showed that 311 of the 502 canals throughout the island chain did not meet the State’s minimum water quality criteria, and are a source of nutrients and other contaminants to nearshore waters.

The County has funded $7 million for 8 demonstration projects that used different methods for canal restoration. The purpose was to verify the applicability, feasibility, effectiveness, and costs of the different methods. State and federal grants have contributed more than $1 million to this program.

Results from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant, which provided funding to address data gaps and changes to the State’s DEP dissolved oxygen methodology and criteria in the canal master plan, showed a reduction in the number of “poor” classified canals throughout the Keys. Based on this new information, the County is re-ranking and prioritizing canals for potential restoration projects.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Plan for Coastal Storm Resilience

The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners directed staff to sign the required letter of support and financial certification and to accept the feasibility study developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for reducing coastal storm risk vulnerability for the Florida Keys. The plan is subject to further congressional authorization and funding availability. 

The plan was developed under a 3-year Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Study with the USACE and includes nonstructural and structural measures that will reduce the risk to the Florida Keys from coastal storms, including storm surge, sea-level rise, and other changing conditions which pose potential coastal storm risks. In late April 2021, the final feasibility report will be released for public review and the 3-year study will be completed in September 2021, at which time a Chief of Engineer’s Report will be signed by the USACE so the recommended plan can be potentially authorized into law by Congress.

The letter of support demonstrates the County’s willingness to participate in the implementation of the first portion of the plan but is not a contractual agreement. It only shows the County supports the plan and intends to participate in the potential future implementation of the project as a cost-sharing partner with the federal government. Monroe County is not required to contribute funding for the project until Congress has appropriated funding for implementation and a formal agreement is executed between USACE and the County.

The first portion of the proposed plan to move forward includes six revetment areas along U.S. 1 that have been identified as vulnerable to erosion and wave energy. In addition, voluntary residential elevations and floodproofing of commercial and critical infrastructure vulnerable to storm surge damage throughout the Florida Keys are included. USACE removed all acquisitions from the plan after additional analysis determined it was less cost-effective compared to the elevation of homes.

The project total is estimated at $2.6 billion, to be split 65 percent federal ($1.7 billion) and 35 percent non-federal ($893 million). Non-federal funds can come from the state, county, municipalities, and other non-federal entities.

• Feb. 17, 2021 Presentation