“How South Florida Is Adapting To Rising Sea Levels With New Funding From The State”

South Florida will get more than $180 million for bigger pipes, more powerful stormwater pumps and taller channels to deal with rising sea levels — the bulk of this year’s state funding.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the latest round of grants for Resilient Florida on Monday afternoon. South Florida cities, which face the greatest risk to life and property due to the two-foot rise in sea levels expected by 2060, took home most of the $275 million pot.

“These awards will fund critical actions in inland and coastal areas to adapt legacy infrastructure and implement nature-based solutions that address current and projected sea level rise and flooding to minimize adverse impacts on Floridians and their families,” said the The state’s Chief Resiliency Officer Wesley Brooks wrote in a statement.

The money will fund 75 projects ranging from raising the banks of the C-8 Canal in north Miami-Dade to potentially converting a Miami Beach golf course into a flood-water park and raising roads in the Florida Keys .

Broward County was the biggest winner with 16 projects worth over $66 million.

This is the third year that the Resilient Florida program, DeSantis’ largest foray into climate adaptation funding, has awarded grants. To date, the state has committed more than $1.1 billion in funding to respond to symptoms of climate change, such as rising tides and stronger hurricanes.

But the need is much greater.

In the early years of the program, Florida communities requested $2.3 billion in grants, with South Florida cities claiming the lion’s share of that total at $1.8 billion.

And experts say that government funding, welcome and necessary as it may be, only addresses half of the climate change problem. It doesn’t address the root cause – the uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels.

READ MORE: ‘One job is incomplete’: Florida’s statewide response to climate change ignores root cause

View the full list of funded projects here.

Source