The Vision: Securing Our Future

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The Coastline is a comprehensive strategy proposing a continuous regional coastal defense system that functions as a high-performance green corridor. By providing robust physical protection against storm surge and sea-level rise, the project secures the stability required for meaningful, long-term urban adaptation. This defense affords municipalities the essential safety and time to navigate complex future transitions, such as managed retreat and transferable development rights, without the pressure of immediate, catastrophic flood events.

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Infrastructural Opportunism: Defense as Amenity

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The project protects communities by introducing a vegetated berm, a new green park space, that strategically limits how and where water impacts South Florida. More than a static barrier, this system transforms necessary climate infrastructure into a world-class green public amenity, expanding the waterfront to provide acres of wide-open park space, and reintroduction of native aquatic ecology, assisting the health of the Bay.

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Strategic Stability & Regional Water Management

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The Coastline provides a fiscal and temporal stabilizer for South Florida. By mitigating the existential threat of storm surge, the project allows cities to look toward 50-to-100-year planning timelines.

• Synchronized Management: Designed to work in concert with the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), the project assists in regulating the Miami River basin during major rain events.

• Active Protection: Integrated tidal locks at the mouth of the river—between Brickell and Brickell Key—and gates at critical inlets like I-395, Haulover Inlet, and the Stranahan River can be closed during surges to drastically reduce inland water infiltration.

• Resource Optimization: By establishing a reliable safety baseline, municipalities can stop investing in "band-aid" solutions and instead direct precious resources toward permanent, high-impact resilience infrastructure.

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A Unified Regional Greenway

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The Coastline serves as a catalyst for regional connectivity, linking disparate neighborhoods into a unified public realm.

• Urban Links: The network creates a seamless connection from The Underline through Brickell and into Downtown Miami, extending across the I-395 causeway.

• Coastal Continuity: This upgraded infrastructure links directly to South Pointe Park, plugging into an existing public amenity that runs continuously for miles up to Bal Harbour.

• Scale of Protection: By focusing on these critical nodes, the project protects hundreds of miles of direct waterfront property, the property behind that waterfront, and the vulnerable inland areas that rely on these basins for discharge.