Cost to keep Miami dry over next few decades is $4 billion

It will cost at least $3.8 billion over the next 40 years to keep the City of Miami dry from rising seas, according to a draft of the city’s newly released stormwater master plan.

That sum, about four times the city’s annual budget, would buy the city new mega stormwater pumps, miles of 6-foot-tall sea walls, thousands of injection wells, and a network of eight-foot diameter underground pipes. These measures, though, are not likely to keep all neighborhoods dry.

Miami faces rising ocean levels due to the effects of global climate change. Even the best engineering options now being considered cannot fully mitigate this phenomenon, though city officials say the expense will be beneficial and keep Miami livable largely as is through 2060.

The report also alludes to a future decades later that includes floating cities and converting roads to canals.