Chapter 1: Our History of Living with Water
From the ocean and Biscayne Bay on the east, the Everglades to the west, and groundwater beneath us, our community is shaped by water.
About 2 million years ago, a warm, shallow sea covered South Florida. During this time, an oolite limestone shoal began forming underwater. This shoal, named the Miami Limestone, is what we call “the ridge,” and where we find the highest ground in the County.
As the sea receded, new landscapes formed including vast wetlands. As people moved into South Florida, their communities and economies became intricately tied to water and the wider environment.
The following is an elevation map of Miami-Dade County. The dark red and brown areas are the highest elevation, known as "the ridge," and the blue areas are the lowest elevation.
Elevation map of Miami-Dade County
Long before Europeans colonized South Florida, the Tequesta people and their ancestors lived along the coast and waterways and in the Everglades, forming tree islands to shape and control the water system. Their largest villages were located at the mouth of the Miami River and along Biscayne Bay. In the 1500s, Europeans began fighting for ownership of the land. People enslaved in British-controlled regions escaped and established communities in southern Florida where they were offered asylum as part of the Spanish attempt to destabilize British rule further north. Some joined Seminole communities already living in the region.
A marker commemorating the site of the principle town of the Tequesta
By the early 1800s, only a handful of European settler families lived in the region. They erected their homes along the ridge or close to the mouth of the Miami River. Access to water was critical for the livelihoods of the many early residents of this region, ranging from Black Bahamian fishermen and Seminole farmers, to European traders, who navigated the waterways for trading purposes, salvaging goods and materials from shipwrecks along the coast.
Gerdes, L. H., The mouth of the Miama River : running into Key Biscayne Bay, 1849. X-1089-1, U.S. Coast Guard Survey Map, National Archives.
After Spain sold Florida to the United States, the government began a decades-long war with the Seminole over their land. During this time, the United States forcibly relocated many Seminole to western territories and sold their land. Any remaining Seminole were driven into the Everglades and came to be known as the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida.
By the end of the Civil War (1861-1865), most land was still wetlands and part of the Everglades ecosystem. In the rainy season, shallow rivers, called transverse glades, brought freshwater from the Everglades to the Bay by gravity. Freshwater flowed from the west and reached the Bay by land and underground through submarine springs. The Bay was clean and healthy with abundant fish and wildlife.
The Florida East Coast Railway extended into the region and the City of Miami was incorporated in 1896. Black Bahamians were some of the founding members of Miami, establishing communities in places like Coconut Grove. The channelization of the Miami River and the extension of the highway allowed for new development, population growth and an increase in land values, changing the social, economic and environmental landscape forever.
Expansion and development patterns, mid-1820s to 1940
The 1920s saw rapid population growth, racial segregation and the first major storm to hit the developed region.
Urban development to attract and accommodate the growing population began changing both the land and water. Low-lying areas were filled in, open spaces along waterways were claimed for commercial and residential buildings and man-made islands such as the Venetian Islands, Star Island and Normandy Isles were created.
To create the islands, workers dredged the Bay to build solid ground where there was once only water or marshland. While dredging soil and building new land provided additional space for new homes, it changed the ecology of Biscayne Bay and the quality of the water.
The benefits of economic growth were not shared equally across neighborhoods. Exclusionary planning and zoning practices such as "redlining" created both legal and informal segregation between Black and white communities and made it more difficult for Black residents to achieve home ownership and build inter-generational family wealth.
Redline map from the Home Owners Loan Corporation, 1934
White residents bought land closest to the coast and Bay and many Black residents in Miami were only allowed to live in certain neighborhoods where the local government often ignored their needs, failed to address unlivable housing conditions and perpetuated racist Jim Crow-era policies and practices. Black residents living in Colored Town (now called Overtown) were not permitted to expand their neighborhoods. As the population of these communities grew, housing conditions deteriorated.
Learn more about the history of Miami's housing policies.
As the environmental and social landscape changed, the first major hurricane hit Miami in 1926.
Many newcomers to the region were unfamiliar with hurricanes. The community did not have the technology to alert people about the dangers and some residents were caught outside sheltered areas after the eye of the storm passed.
The city was hit with winds up to 150 miles per hour. In some areas, residents and researchers recorded storm surge heights between eight and nine feet which caused deep flooding and widespread damage.
In the 1930s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began water management, digging miles of canals in Central and South Florida and lowering water levels in some parts of the County by several feet. Soil dug from canals was used to fill wetlands to continue creating space for new development. Wetlands that used to hold and filter water were paved over, and free-flowing waterways were channelized.
The first canals ran from Lake Okeechobee through Miami-Dade County in the early 1900s
Many new areas were built on though they were just a few feet above sea level and the wet-season groundwater table. Our extensive canal system was built to rely primarily upon gravity for drainage and needs constant management to maintain the correct water flow and volume. The early creators of this canal system did not account for future rising seas.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continued dredging canals and added infrastructure to help control water flow and volume
Major flooding events in 1947 and 1948 led to the creation of the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District, a state-level authority charged with operating the water management system built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This new federal-state partnership began as migration led to population increases and drove demand for development.
To make room for continued growth, Black Neighborhoods were removed from Coconut Grove in 1948. Expansion of I-95 through Overtown in the 1960s later displaced other Black communities, exacerbating racial inequalities that have occurred for decades.
In the late 1950s, many Cubans emigrated to South Florida. Other mass migrations occurred again in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, with groups from other nations as well, including Haiti. Some came for the climate and business opportunities; others to escape oppression or violence in their home countries. Throughout this period, discriminatory planning and zoning policies shaped where different people established their roots when they arrived in Miami-Dade. Neighborhoods like Little Haiti, where many Haitian immigrants settled in the 80s, are on areas of higher elevation.
As populations swelled into the 1970s, more stringent environmental protections were implemented. The Urban Development Boundary (UDB) was created to regulate where development could occur and prohibited expansion into the Everglades.
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit and devastated areas of south Miami-Dade. The County adapted by strengthening wind codes for new buildings to avoid future damage from similar storms. In 2000, the “no name storm” dropped more than 10 inches of rain, causing extensive flooding to inland communities and affecting more than 200,000 residents in the County.
Destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew, 1992
In 2000, the South Florida Water Management District was established and is now charged with four goals: flood control, water supply planning, water quality improvement, and ecosystem restoration. Water must constantly now be moved to ensure there is enough freshwater to drink, keep back saltwater and support the Everglades. At the same time, water levels must be maintained at a level that reduces the risk of flooding.
Illustration of the drainage system by the South Florida Water Management District
Striking such a delicate balance requires manipulating the system 24 hours a day. The water management system makes it possible for us to live in many parts of South Florida. However, the impact from storms is still one of our greatest water management challenges.
Hurricanes Wilma and Katrina followed in 2005 and Hurricane Irma hit in 2017, flooding many communities in their path. If the Great Miami Hurricane happened today with higher average sea level than in the 1920s, many more people would be affected. As storms continue to impact our lives, preparing now for higher sea levels and warmer oceans will help us reduce damages from future flooding.
In addition to storms, flooding is also caused by high tides, which are natural phenomena created due to the Earth's relative position to the moon and have always been higher in the fall due to seasonal changes in the winds and Gulf Stream.
Since sea levels are now nine inches higher than they were in 1930, sunny day flooding, also known as the “King Tide,” has become more frequent. Moving forward, we will have to continue reshaping our relationship with the land and water to ensure Miami-Dade County adapts.
As we prepare for a future of living with more water, we must ensure that our planning and policy decisions recognize our social, economic and environmental histories and understand the deep connection we have to the complex water environment in which we live.
Continue learning about Miami-Dade County's Sea Level Rise Strategy and explore Our Adaptation Vision .
To go back to the previous chapter of Miami-Dade County's Sea Level Rise Strategy, return to the Introduction .
Credits
This StoryMap was developed by the Miami-Dade County Office of Resilience and led by Maria Jose Orejuela, the Office's 2020 Urban Sustainability Director's Network Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Fellow.
