University initiative allows community to document King Tide Day

Nicole Montero/ Asst. News Director

School of Journalism and Mass Communication students and faculty used an online application to document flooding in different areas as part of King Tide Day, a day when the tides are the highest in South Florida.

The flooding was documented in Indian Creek Road using the Sea Level Rise Toolbox, an online app under Eyes on the Rise, a project led by SJMC professors.

The project is dedicated to creating student journalism in areas related to sea level rise.

“We have high elevation on King Tide Day and, because of this, we have an aging infrastructure in terms of how we manage water,” said Susan Jacobson, SJMC professor and the application’s project manager.

“What happens is that when the tides are very high, whether it’s raining or not, the streets get flooded, which is what is happening in Indian Creek Road.”

To stop the streets from flooding, the City of Miami Beach put up barriers and sandbags around the water, as well as installed more than seven temporary water pumps along the water’s edge.

“It’s literally pumping water out of the sewers and into the bay,” said Jacobson. “They’re doing that because they know that if they did not have those pumps, the flooding we’re seeing would be in the streets… It’s a sea level rise problem and, if you were to test the water coming out of the sewer system, it’ll have a salt content.”

Maria Serrano, a senior journalism and marketing major, went to document the flooding. But, on her way to Indian Creek, she saw something that surprised her.

“I saw a yacht parked around Tenth Street, but the street was completely flooded, and the yacht looked like it was on the street,” she said. “It’s impressive and scary because now we can see the effects of sea level rise. We’re seeing this now, not 10 years from now.”

Serrano, along with six other students and University staff, took photos and videos of the flood and reported it using the app.

The app, which can be accessed at eyesontherise.org/app, allows users to enter their Miami or Broward-based addresses and see the intended impact of sea level rise at different levels.

“It’s an interactive sea level rise viewer that lets you see how impacted that area is going to be,” said Jacobson. “The app allows people to go out when they see flooding to document it, and the form automatically takes your location and uploads your report to a central database.”

The results of all the reports are then posted on the Eyes on the Rise website, after vetting and approving the locations to make sure they aren’t false reports.

“I saw a major rise of sea level at around 9:26 a.m. on King Tide Day,” said Serrano. “The water is at the same level as the street. It’s impressive and scary.”

The app, released this year, is led by the professors of the Eyes of the Rise project: Susan Jacobson, Ted Gutsche, Kate Macmillian and Juliet Pinto.

Other organizations also contributed to the development, including the University’s Geographic Information Systems Center, who developed the algorithm of the application and worked on the flood report database.

Jacobson said that students, particularly those who live in Miami or Broward, will become more aware of the flooding in their neighborhoods because of sea level rise.

“When you see something like this, it makes you realize how important it is to find permanent solutions to sea level rise,” she said. “These temporary pumps will do the job today, but they will not do the job in years to come.”

-nicole.montero@fiusm.com

Photos Courtesy of Nicole Montero

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