Centering on ‘climate gentrification’, this project aims to challenge current resilient infrastructure efforts with a sensitive and inclusive adaptation design strategy. This is in response to the continued displacement of its diaspora due to climate change. Informed by environmental and empathetic infrastructure, I’m proposing a regional plan that reintroduces the Florida Everglade’s natural watershed into Miami-Dade County. The aim is to bridge nature and the communities affected by climate change's economic and ecological impacts.

 

By 2100, Sea Level Rise (SLR) in Miami is predicted to be up to 2m higher than today. Most areas in Miami are less than 2m above sea level and have an average water table of about 1.5m. Combined with the SLR predictions, this becomes a stark reality for the future.

 

Areas with large immigrant populations that were seen as unfavorable, are now desirable due to their higher elevation, displacing people who have already been displaced. The resulting climate gentrification is not only a threat to individual communities, but to Miami as a whole. What is gained in GDP is lost in cultural and environmental nutrients.

As the immigrants who’ve come to Miami, we must learn to adapt to the land. This project aims to challenge current resilient infrastructure efforts with a sensitive and inclusive adaptation design strategy.

My approach consists of four strategies:

1. Water- Restoring the watershed

2. Land- Rewilding as Adaptation

3. Connection- navigating through and with nature 

4. Development - empathetic infrastructure

 I will be working in four scales XL- County, L- District, M-neighborhood, and S-Gator Scale (People scale)

Miami is in a position to set an example for a future of living with climate change, that if done effectively,  could become the framework for how to live equitably and inclusively both amongst each other and with the natural environment.