Narrow Results

Southeast Florida is a low-lying area and highly susceptible to permanent inundation from sea-level rise (SLR). Therefore, the SLR rise has the potential to disrupt the region’s strong Gross Regional Product, which has far outperformed that of the nation over the past 40 years. Among the four counties in Southeast Florida, Miami-Dade has the highest economic activity. The County’s roadways have the highest traffic volume per lane mile; hence, the resiliency of the County’s roadways against climate stressors is critical. The rising groundwater table due to SLR is potentially damaging to the base and subbase layers of the roadways, thereby reducing the roadway service life. The existing vulnerability maps that used the bathtub method do not account for rising groundwater levels to model sea level rise; therefore, the bathtub method underestimates SLR impact. An enhanced vulnerability map is utilized to identify roadway segments at several risk categories caused by different factors, such as reduced subgrade strength due to groundwater table variation and traffic loading. Identification of road infrastructure subgrade layer affected by the rising groundwater table has been produced using a county-scale groundwater flow modeling results of Miami-Dade. Multilayer elastic model has simulated typical pavement layers for three functional roadway classifications, and modulus resilient of the subgrade was adjusted according to rising groundwater table due to SLR. An updated vulnerability map will be crucial for identifying effective adaptation solutions and resource allocation to preserve pavement service life.