With sea levels in Northeast Florida predicted to rise between 1.5 and 5 feet by 2100, the St. Augustine City Commission proposed a $15,000 partnership with the University of Florida to study the possible effects of rising sea levels in the nation’s oldest city.
If approved, the agreement between St. Augustine and the university's Florida Resilient Communities Initiative (FRCI) would go into effect Oct. 1. FRCI is a collaboration between the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the College of Design, Construction and Planning.
Martha Graham, city public works director for St. Augustine, said the project will tentatively be completed by December.
The studies are expected to “provide a long-range look ahead at the problems that need to be addressed,” Graham said. “This study is going to try to develop a road map for us.”
With increased flooding and contamination of drinking wells in recent years, as well as the 2011 restoration of the 175-year-old coquina concrete sea walls around Castillo de San Marcos, the new studies could potentially drive future renovation and preservation projects. The research would help with city budgeting in future years, allocating the appropriate amount of money to infrastructure development, Graham said.
The researchers hope to use the money to develop maps that highlight the most vulnerable areas of the historic city, so that St. Augustine can better prepare itself for the possibility of flooding in the future.
Graham said this local agreement was born out of concerns over storm water flooding and damage, as well as cultural preservation of the historic city.
According to a three-year project led by UF in 2012, Planning for Sea Level Rise in the Matanzas Basin, “scientists anticipate that sea level rise will accelerate over the next century, placing even greater stresses on both communities and ecosystems to adapt.”
Pierce Jones, from the UF Program of Resource Efficient Communities; Christopher Silver, dean and professor in the UF College of Design, Construction and Planning; and Jerry Murphy, an associate professor in the College of Design, will lead the St. Augustine project in coordination with the city.