Aaron shares The Coastline with the Associated Press, for how to adapt to sea level rise and storms

It was a pleasure speaking with Dorany Pineda of the Associated Press for her feature on how Florida is adapting to rising seas and worsening storms. The conversation gave me a chance to share some of the rationale behind The Coastline, a regional resilience master plan we've been developing for more than a decade. The vision is rooted in a simple question: How can we proactively protect our community, economy, and environment while creating infrastructure that delivers value beyond disaster preparedness?

The conversation was an opportunity to share some of the ideas behind The Coastline, a regional resilience master plan we’ve been developing for over a decade. The vision is rooted in a simple question, how can we proactively protect our community, economy, and environment while creating infrastructure that provides value beyond simply responding to disasters?

South Florida has an enormous amount of low-lying waterfront property, along with the communities and infrastructure behind it. The scale of the challenge requires us to think beyond individual properties and consider how our coastline functions as a connected regional system.

The Coastline proposes a large-scale approach to storm surge and sea-level-rise protection through selective, precise interventions designed to provide a high return on investment. Given the length of South Florida’s coastline, addressing properties individually would take more time and cost more, while ultimately being less effective. A coordinated regional approach lets us intervene where protection can have the greatest impact, at the points where water enters the River basins and Biscayne Bay.

Aaron DeMayo, founder of Future Vision Studios, holds a plan for The Coastline, a regional resilience masterplan proposal to protect Southern Florida from storm surge and sea level rise Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

The article also arrived at an important moment, just days before the 34th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew. As Jeffrey Huber points out, Andrew was a defining moment for South Florida, exposing our communities' vulnerability to powerful storms and changing how we build and prepare for hurricanes. More than three decades later, that lesson remains relevant as we face rising seas and increasingly complex climate risks, though the focus has expanded from wind to water.

The article highlights innovative approaches across South Florida, from living seawalls that provide marine habitat to buildings and public spaces designed to accommodate water rather than simply fight it. These projects demonstrate that resilience does not have to mean choosing between protecting our communities and creating better places to live. I believe the next generation of planning needs to take this broader view. We should design for the conditions we know are coming while finding opportunities for those investments to serve multiple purposes today.

Miami and South Florida have a lot at risk, and will require bold solutions and leaders to make the decisions and investments needed to address the challenges. We have an opportunity to become a model for how coastal communities worldwide can prepare for a changing future. I’m grateful to the Associated Press for highlighting these conversations and bringing greater attention to the work being done to build a more resilient South Florida.

Read the full Associated Press article: Florida builds to adapt amid threats of sea level rise and worsening storms.

Explore the full project: The Coastline: A Regional Strategy for Resilience and Connectivity

Rendering, looking north, between Brickell Key and Brickell Bay Drive, of the green infrastructure and tidal locks protecting the Miami urban core and Miami River basin.