Increasing sea level has the potential to place important infrastructure we rely on every day at risk, yet we lack good data to make decisions on what to do, when, and with what priority. The objectives of the research were to develop a method for estimating the time scales for various increments of sea level rise (SLR) throughout the 21st century, develop an accurate methodology for predicting impacts of SLR at the local level, and develop recommendations as to how existing data sources can be utilized to identify infrastructure vulnerable to SLR. The methodology was applied to southeast Florida using data from the Florida Department of Transportation, the United States Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other sources, integrated with low resolution light detection and ranging data, topographic data, and aerial photographic maps to identify potentially vulnerable infrastructure. Overlaying high resolution light detection and ranging data onto a base map enabled creation of mapping tools to evaluate potentially vulnerable infrastructure. Using these recommendations, a protocol was developed to use groundwater adjusted models in southeast Florida which indicated potential underestimation of the risk of damage to public infrastructure and private and public buildings.

The objective of this research was developing a methodology for assessing the potential impacts of sea level rise (SLR) on Florida's state transportation infrastructure to assist the state with transportation planning. The proposed approach integrates the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) information system, satellite imagery, local roadway and hydrologic data with existing topographical and geographical data to generate SLR projections to facilitate i) the evaluation of current and projected SLR impacts on transportation infrastructure located along Florida's coastline and low-lying terrain areas, and ii) the identification of the physical transportation infrastructure components that are vulnerable given the United States Army Corps of Engineers' scenario-based methodology to project the timing of future low, intermediate and high rates of sea level change. A detailed case study in Dania Beach, Florida and a comparative example in Punta Gorda, Florida were used to evaluate the soundness of the methodology. Further research was performed to develop a preliminary evaluation of the impact of groundwater levels as an exacerbating factor with respect to sea level rise. Storm surge with SLR is a future, more difficult area of investigation.

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In June, 2004 and February, 2007, in field tracer studies were conducted on the Hollywood and South Central outfalls, using sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) as a tracer. The objective of these studies was to determine if the tracer could be detected in the farfield at significant distance, and if so, could this data be used to construct a model of the farfield plume. Prior models for farfield plume movement do not appear to comport well with the conditions in southeast Florida. Extensive research was conducted in southeast Florida on 4 outfalls, which led to the development of nearfield dilution equations for same. However farfield modeling of outfall plumes was difficult to accomplish because the tracers used are not detectable for significant distances. The SF6 resolved that problem and as a result the Hollywood outfall was used to construct a model. Two methods were investigated for modeling the plume, 1) the Eureqa formulation method and 2) the Gamma-Curve method. The concentrations in the x-y plane were first found by using the Eureqa formulation to calculate the concentration at each grid point given its depth and the concentration of the centerline at the same latitude. The plume models were generated using MATLAB that matched with the results actually seen in the field.

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