In an urban design studio, I helped create a 2070 climate resiliency master plan and set of zoning codes for Broward County, Florida to protect coastal communities and create new neighborhoods typologies adapted to a state of constant change.

Role Designer
For Broward & Palm Beach Counties, Florida
Date 2015
Service research, spatial design

Zoning-based Resiliency

Storms, flooding, and sea level rise increasingly threaten urbanism in South Florida. The escalating frequency and intensity of rain and a rising water table compound with development patterns that continue to operate as if the ground can be kept dry forever—creating a recipe for disaster. However, the state government has made the term “climate change” all but illegal, laying the burden of long-range resiliency planning to individual cities and counties.

In 2015, our urban design studio at MIT partnered with Broward County and Palm Beach County planning departments to develop strategies to better adapt to an inevitably wetter future using tools that they already possess, especially that of the zoning code. I worked on the team that led the Broward County plan.

Climate Risk Analysis

The bulk of my work focused on creating dynamic landscape models that informed my team’s “flux zone” adaptation strategy and unlocked a framework for each of us to design tailored solutions for different urban conditions that could fit seamlessly together in a comprehensive plan.

To understand how our sites would fare under different storm or sea level rise scenarios, we animated 3D landscape models that we generated from 2D topographic data in Rhino. I ran an After Effects workshop to help my colleagues animate their videos.

2070 Master Plan & Zoning Strategy

Inland Sea Transition

For my individual site work, I focused on shifting the conversation around Broward County’s low-lying coastal neighborhoods—its first line of exposure to extreme weather events—from floods threatening dry property to one that embraces water and ecosystem as opportunities for protection and tourism, creating a new type of Floridian experience adapted to the area’s new role as a coastal buffer.

Impact

Our studio marked the beginning of further collaboration between MIT and Broward County, including the MIT Urban Risk Lab’s flux.land platform, which is currently being used in public school curricula in Broward County to help students understand and explore the local impacts of sea level rise.