Dutch Team to Help Make Tampa Bay More Resilient

Photo: Istockphoto.com

The Dutch developed their signature windmills about 500 years ago to pump water out of wetlands to create arable land. Today, about 70% of the country’s business is conducted on lands that are below sea level.

No one on earth knows more about water than the Dutch, who began building dikes more than a thousand years ago. It’s one of the world’s most densely populated countries and more than 20% of its residents live in areas that are below sea level.

A new program is drawing upon that centuries-old expertise as well as modern innovations in engineering, architecture and ecology. Called Resilient Tampa Bay 2011, the three-day event will feature a panel of Dutch experts exchanging ideas with local professionals and policy makers to help identify concrete solutions that will make the region more resilient, focusing on:

• Urban flooding, a long-term issue in neighborhoods like south Tampa and Shore Acres
• Storm surges from storms and hurricanes, including significant expansions of evacuation areas based on updated models that incorporate data from recent hurricanes
• Sea level rise, a long-term threat but a measureable and historic phenomenon.

Organized by the University of South Florida, Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, Tampa Bay Estuary Program, the Chairs Coordinating Committee, and the Dutch Consulate in Miami, Resilient Tampa Bay is scheduled for Feb. 21-23, including a series of public meetings at USF’s Patel Center for Global Solutions.

“We’re looking for a broad audience to attend, everyone from engineers and environmentalists to business leaders and elected officials,” said Daniel Yeh, USF professor of civil and environmental engineering and one of the event organizers. “Most of the sessions are open to everyone who has a stake in the future of Tampa Bay.”

The Dutch experts will focus on innovative approaches used to cope with the challenges of living at or below sea level, while successfully operating the largest seaport in Europe. “There are basically three strategies available – move to higher ground, build a barrier like a dike, or design structures differently,” Yeh said.

From a planning perspective, looking at alternatives in advance offers a wider range of options, Yeh adds. “The faster we make plans, the more options we have. At some point, we’ll be very limited on the choices we can make.”

And that could make an enormous difference in terms of protecting natural resources, notes Lindsay Cross, an environmental scientist with the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. “In some areas of Tampa Bay, we could plant mangroves to soften wave action and reduce flooding rather than using hard structures like seawalls.”

“Not everything that works there will work here but meeting with experts from the Netherlands gives us points of discussion from people who have been proactive in developing resiliency and protecting their economic prosperity,” said Yeh.

For instance, more parks modeled after those in the Netherlands that combine stormwater retention and recreation could be built in urban Tampa Bay to minimize flooding issues. Dutch “aquatects” also design floating homes with flexible utility connections in areas that often flood so limited land mass can be used in one of the world’s most densely populated countries.

Over the three-day period, experts will work together to develop concrete recommendations for improving resiliency in the Tampa Bay area including:

• Protecting vital infrastructure and transportation
• Preparing for storm surge and sea level rise
• Improving economic development
• Reducing inland flooding
• Preserving natural habitats and gulf beaches
• Avoiding and planning for accidents or spill recovery
• Minimizing impacts from hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Storm Surge Predictions Revised Upward

While Holland doesn’t need to plan for tropical storms, Rotterdam is Europe’s largest seaport. A storm surge washing over its low-lying location in the delta of the Rhine and Muese rivers could cause problems across the continent if shipments were disrupted. The Dutch completed construction on the Maeslantkering, one of the world’s largest moving structures, in 1997 to automatically close their harbor when a storm surge is predicted to reach three meters.

Closer to home, the potential damage from hurricane-driven storm surge was re-evaluated last year using data from hurricanes Katrina and Ike, notes Brady Smith, senior planner for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. “The winds from Katrina and Ike weren’t as strong as the very strongest hurricanes but they were so large that they generated a storm surge equal to a Category 4 or 5 storm.”

Evacuation plans were updated, including some dramatic differences for the stronger storms, based on the new assumptions as well as updated elevation data. In a worst-case scenario, a Category 5 storm making landfall near Indian Rocks Beach could cause a 20-foot flood in St. Petersburg and up to 25 feet into downtown Tampa. The higher parts of Pinellas County would become islands and the surge would push water up rivers and canals causing significant inland flooding.

“It’s a big bay and the wind will push water up the river channels a lot further than most people expect if we get just the right conditions,” Smith said. Damages, not including loss of life, could exceed $200 billion. “If there are things we can do that are feasible to lessen that risk, we need to explore them.”

Sea-Level Rise is Long-Term Threat

Photo courtesy Netherlands Water Partnership

Building homes that float is an innovative solution to rising sea level.

Current hurricane risk doesn’t always take the long-term threat of sea level rise into account. Cities across the country, notably San Francisco and New York, already are planning to incorporate sea-level rise into their building plans. “Sea level rise is a long-term measurable phenomenon whatever its cause may be,” Yeh said.

Charlotte Harbor, where Hurricane Charlie came ashore in 2004, also is developing prototypical plans to protect sensitive coastal ecosystems with funding through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of its “Climate-Ready Estuaries” effort.

Hurricane Charlie, which threatened Tampa Bay but turned south at the last minute, didn’t play a role in EPA awarding Charlotte Harbor the funding, but it did make climate change a more important priority for residents, notes Jim Beever, principal planner of the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council who will also be participating in Resilient Tampa Bay 2011.

“One thing that surprises people about sea-level change is that it’s been happening for hundreds of years,” Beever notes. “It’s not something that just started.”

The city of Punta Gorda, at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor, bore the brunt of Hurricane Charlie but has become one of the first cities in the country to create a comprehensive climate adaptation plan. Developed after a series of meetings involving both local residents and national and international experts, the plan identities a series of vulnerabilities and then details how residents want – and do not want – to address the issues.

“The key thing was to involve the public as much as possible so we knew what they thought was reasonable and what they simply did not want to do,” Beever said. “For instance, one of the suggestions was mandatory environmental training for new residents but they turned that one down.”

They did, however, embrace a range of adaptation options including:

• Enhance energy independence of city-owned property, including more use of solar and other forms of power. One county building already has enough solar capacity to operate off the grid if necessary.
• Revise building ordinances to focus on Florida-friendly landscapes
• Develop fertilizer regulations that limit nutrients in stormwater runoff to protect seagrass beds and other natural resources.
• Develop multi-use recreation trails and bike paths.
• Consider expanding wastewater treatment capacity by having residential lawns, irrigated parks, golf courses etc. served by gray water.

Working with experts from the Netherlands gives Tampa Bay residents – including the business community as well as people focused on the environmental aspects – a look at what’s worked over the long term, Cross adds. “They’ve been living with water and integrating into their neighborhoods and communities for centuries. They have a lot to share about the things that work well, and those that didn’t work as well from a long-term ecosystem perspective.”

For more information and to register for the event, visit www.resilienttampabay.com.