According to a new study by Florida International University’s FIU Institute of Environment, sea levels rise is pushing underground water closer to the surface. Sometimes these water surface reaches the underground levels of coastal buildings.
Randall Parkinson, FIU coastal geologist, have conducted research on how the Champlain Towers South collapsed in Surfside by the rise of deadly waves.
Parkinson has studied the data collected by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, between the years of 1994 and 2006. Parkinson found in his study that sea level in Miami Beach was higher than the underground parking garage during these years. After 2006, sea level has accelerated remarkably and it was higher than the basement level of a house.
As authorities are trying to find out the reason behind the collapse of the Champlain Towers, and it was thought previously that climate change has played a vital role in this disaster.
But Parkinson emphasised upon that this is the high time when costal managers have to rethink the way they use the resources that has built human environment.
Parkinson also emphasised upon the fact that licensed engineers should more often visit the buildings along seaside and the building owners should follow the engineers’ recommendations by keeping their buildings in solid shape.
Till now, researchers have only studied how water treatment facilities, power substations and evacuation routes are going to be affected by sea level rise. The buildings that have been built before 1990, have taken into account.
Architects and engineers cannot depend on today’s condition to overcome the disastrous effects of increasing sea level rise.
