The sea around us

Submitted by Evelyn C. McDonald

Arts & Culture Reporter

September 21, 2016 11:30 a.m.

The Amelia Museum of History sponsors lectures the third Friday of every month. Last Friday Morris “Marty” Hylton III addressed the subject of rising sea levels. The best part about the talk was that he didn’t politicize the subject. Rising sea level is something we can see with our own eyes. This may be a natural phenomenon that has nothing to do with climate change. The point is that natural or not, we are potentially in the path of that phenomenon.

Egans Creek from Atlantic Avenue during a higher than normal tide. This photo was taken in September of 2015 by Evelyn McDonald.

Hylton is the director of the Historic Preservation Program in the College of Design, Construction and Planning at the University of Florida. His organization has been doing studies around the state and other parts of the country on the impact of rising seas.

He discussed the issue of rising sea level as it is affecting coastal areas such as Miami, Tampa and Cedar Key. In the face of rising sea levels, communities have three responses – protection, accommodation, or retreat. Protection may be seen in the flood barriers in place along the coast of Italy to protect the lagoon surrounding Venice. The rebuilding of Galveston after the hurricane of 1900 is an example of accommodation. Buildings that were still standing were raised up above the surge level. Retreat happened on Nantucket where a cliff that was receding 12 feet a year threatened a lighthouse. The lighthouse was relocated inland and may have to be relocated again.

UF is doing work on Nantucket where huge storms have re-configured the ocean floor and made the cliffs more vulnerable. There they are installing large tubes filled with sand to stabilize the cliffs. Low lying areas are also threatened in Miami where the city is spending millions to raise the level of the streets.

One of the interesting aspects of Hylton’s talk was his description of the use of laser technology to measure and construct models of structures. Laser measurements yield one of the most accurate models of a building. In Cedar Key, they used the model of a hotel to run scenarios of the effects of various flood levels. As a side benefit if damage had been done to the hotel during a storm, the model could be used to assist in the reconstruction of the building.

The state of Florida has funded development of a website where you can view maps of the state and look at various scenarios for sea level rising. The initial purpose of the site was to see what impact sea level rising would have on transportation. The site is at sls.geoplan.ufl.edu. As islanders, this is an issue worth considering.

Evelyn McDonald moved to Fernandina Beach from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. in 2006. She is a chair of Arts & Culture Nassau, a city commission charged with support of the arts in Nassau County. She serves on FSCJ's Curriculum Committee for the Center for Lifelong Learning. She is also the chair of the Dean’s Council for the Carpenter Library at the UNF. Ms. McDonald has MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland’s University College and a BA in Spanish from the University of Michigan.