Name: How to Protect Florida Coasts from Hurricane Storm Surge
Uploaded: undefined
Duration: undefined

NOVA

Carlisle Companies

Viking

NOVA Science Trust Logo

Researchers combine engineering and ecology to protect coasts from hurricane storm surge.

We visit the University of Miami's SUSTAIN Lab, where an interdisciplinary team of researchers is working to protect coasts from deadly hurricane storm surge. Their approach mixes engineering with natural ecosystems that slow storm surge. They have begun testing the SEAHIVE system, which combines concrete with mangrove trees and corals to create a living coastline that is also armored.This video was produced in collaboration with NOVA and is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

We visit the University of Miami's SUSTAIN Lab, where an interdisciplinary team of researchers is working to protect coasts from deadly hurricane storm surge. Their approach mixes engineering with natural ecosystems that slow storm surge. They have begun testing the SEAHIVE system, which combines concrete with mangrove trees and corals to create a living coastline that is also armored.

How to Protect Florida Coasts from Hurricane Storm Surge

Researchers combine engineering and ecology to protect coasts from hurricane storm surge.

Nature

Dr. Brian Haus: If we don't act, we lose time because that next big impact could come tomorrow. Or it could come next year. NARRATOR- Rob Diaz de Villegas: Irma, Michael, Ian. These Category four and five hurricanes hit Florida within the last five years, as did several smaller storms. They've destroyed homes and businesses, totaling over $200 billion in damage. It's not a fluke. It's a trend. Strong storms are landing with increasing frequency, and yet our coasts are largely unprotected. So how can we strengthen coastal communities against wind and waves? That's what the University of Miami SUSTAIN Lab is trying to figure out, using a state of the art hurricane simulator. Peisen Tan: So you can customize a hurricane, can create a hurricane, build a hurricane and study specifically what you want. So this is a computer that controls wave. NARRATOR- Rob Diaz de Villegas: Soon, Peisen Tan will activate this 1460 horsepower fan to unleash a hurricane within this 38,000 gallon tank. Peisenn and the rest of the SUSTAIN team are developing solutions that help communities withstand hurricane waves, which on the coast cause more damage than wind. First, they must understand how waves form and how they transmit energy. Dr. Brian Haus: If you have a calm surface, and the wind starts to blow, there are some initial perturbations. The waves starts to form. Very small waves first. Peisen Tan: This is a monochromatic wave with a seven centimeter amplitude, which is like a rough wave in the ocean. Dr. Brian Haus: Over time and distance, the waves continue to grow as the wind pushes on the forming waves. Peisen Tan: And now I think we're already in a Cat. 1 intensity right now. There are tons of sprays and bubbles all over the water surface. Dr. Brian Haus: The wind is pushing against that water and adding energy to the water, energy and momentum. So as that wave continues to propagate and grow, all that wind energy is going into those waves and they can become very large. NARRATOR- Rob Diaz de Villegas: Because of the weight of water, the larger the wave, the more energy it transmits. Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos: One cubic foot of water is 64 pounds. If we take 4 cubic feet of water, it's basically the average weight of an NFL player. Now, imagine an NFL player running to you and basically tackling you. Now, imagine a sea of NFL players coming to you and then coming again and again. Peisen Tan: We’re at a category 5 intensity right now. The sea sprays are going all the way out. NARRATOR- Rob Diaz de Villegas: Category five waves may look a mess, but there is an organized wave motion here propelling the weight of water towards our coasts. Coasts that once looked like this. This is Saint Vincent Island in the Florida panhandle. It's a National Wildlife Refuge and a glimpse at what had once been one of Florida's best natural defenses against hurricanes: Barrier Islands. Dr. Brian Haus: You know, over the pre settlement times in Florida, the barrier islands were natural. They basically served the function of protecting the mainland from storms and things like that. NARRATOR- Rob Diaz de Villegas: Florida was further protected by other natural systems. Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos: Natural systems like salt marshes, seagrasses, oyster reefs, coral reefs, even mangroves- they all kind of protect us, but they all need space and time. And I argue we don't have that. NARRATOR- Rob Diaz de Villegas: In much of Florida, these natural systems have been replaced by human structures built directly on the coast. Miami Beach, for example, is built right on a barrier island. The SUSTAIN Lab designs barriers to protect those hotels and condos from wave energy. The challenge is to engineer a barrier that will slow down the waves in the same way natural systems would. Their designs are tested in a hurricane simulator. Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos: So what we want to avoid is that that energy transfers by impact into the structures. Dr. Brian Haus: Traditional construction of things like sea walls. So a sea wall doesn't take any energy out. It bounces energy off. Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos: But sometimes this also worsens the conditions in nearby areas. Dr. Brian Haus: The key thing for waves is they go into things like salt marshes, oyster reefs, seagrasses, mangroves-they disrupt the motion of the water. Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos: If we can actually create friction or dissipate the energy by breaking the waves of turbulence and you do it on the right locations when they arrive at the shoreline, you’ll have less impact. NARRATOR- Rob Diaz de Villegas: To do this, SUSTAIN has developed a hybrid approach that combines engineering with natural systems. Dr. Brian Haus: The SEAHIVE is a way to replace a traditional sheet pile sea wall with something that is perforated, something that can dissipate more energy locally as opposed to just reflect it, which is what happens at the sea wall. Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos: The units are hexagonal. Hexagonal prisms, hollow on the inside, with a series of holes on their side faces. So what happens there is we pile them up vertically and horizontally. NARRATOR- Rob Diaz de Villegas: The holes slow down wave energy and can be used as planters for mangroves, marsh grasses and coral reefs which further break up the waves. Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos: So create kind of like a living shoreline, a hybrid system that we can adapt. NARRATOR- Rob Diaz de Villegas: SUSTAIN is working towards deploying Sea Hive modules to test sites within the next year. If they work, they could be strategically deployed more widely over the coming decades, helping to buffer the impact of storms. In any year, anywhere in Florida, a category five hurricane can hit. Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos: With all the communities we see more and more, I would say with climate change and rising temperatures, the desertification of the coastlines, I mean, it's almost kind of like the perfect catastrophe scenario for the communities. So luckily, we have been doing better in terms of preparation, in terms of our codes, in terms of construction. So whenever we develop something, we want to make sure that this could be used to protect not only the vulnerable regions, but also the vulnerable population.

United States

Northern Mariana Islands

Puerto Rico

American Samoa

Guam

U.S. Virgin Islands

U.S. Minor Outlying Islands

US & Territories

Colossal explosions shake a remote corner of the Siberian tundra, leaving behind massive craters. In Alaska, a huge lake erupts with bubbles of inflammable gas. Scientists are discovering that these mystifying phenomena add up to a ticking time bomb, as long-frozen permafrost melts and releases vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. What are the implications of these dramatic developments in the Arctic? Scientists and local communities alike are struggling to grasp the scale of the methane threat and what it means for our climate future. (Premiered February 2, 2022)

In the Arctic, enormous releases of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, threaten the climate.

Arctic Sinkholes

The top half of Jupiter in blue and green against a night sky

A composite image of Jupiter using images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt.

Explore the cosmos, delve into ancient history, and follow an extreme rescue with NOVA’s most-watched documentaries released in 2022.

NOVA’s most popular science documentaries of 2022

Four bright orange loops brand off of a dark blue blob

A transmission electron micrograph of HIV-1 virus particles (orange) replicating from the plasma membrane of an infected H9 T cell. Credit: NIAID, Flickr

Scientists have cured a handful of people of HIV by piggybacking on treatments they received for blood cancer. But does that bring a widespread cure any closer?

How to Protect Florida Coasts from Hurricane Storm Surge

Support Provided By

Explore More

Can We Cool the Planet?

Chasing Carbon Zero

Weathering the Future

Transcript

Credits

Support Provided By

Explore More

Can We Cool the Planet?

Chasing Carbon Zero

Weathering the Future