Integrating Green Infrastructure into Miami-Dade County’s Built Environment
Share your ideas for a resilient community!
We are looking for underutilized open spaces that could be revitalized to reduce flooding, heat, and habitat loss. Our project focuses primarily on public land in areas with the greatest potential to advance equity. Feedback will guide the selection of locations for a range of green infrastructure design solutions across Miami-Dade County.
What is Green Infrastructure?
Our communities can be redesigned to work with nature, providing flood protection, shade, habitat, water filtration, and green space, This is called "green infrastructure". Some examples of green infrastructure solutions include:
- Living shorelines and streets
- Rain gardens
- Wetlands
- Urban forests
By implementing green infrastructure, we can manage climate risk and enhance quality of life for all who live in Miami-Dade. Miami Waterkeeper, in collaboration with community partners, is investigating green infrastructure opportunities in Miami-Dade County’s built environment.
About the Project Share Your Input About the Partners
About the Project
Miami Waterkeeper, Local Office, and Florida International University have been awarded a research grant by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to investigate and design green infrastructure opportunities in diverse areas of Miami-Dade's community. In addition to our website and community input digital tool, we will also host in person community town halls to discuss possible locations and design solutions with residents. A key part of the project includes soliciting public input to boost community and coastal resilience through projects that reduce flooding, mitigate stormwater runoff, improve water quality, provide community and wildlife benefits, and help restore our watershed.
About the Partners
Miami Waterkeeper (MWK) will conduct direct engagement with community groups for each potential project site through in-person meetings, town halls, and surveys to build awareness of the need for GI, gather resident input, and inform project design and implementation.
Local Office Landscape Solutions (LOCAL) is a science-driven design practice that prioritizes ecology and metrics as design drivers. Operating between infrastructure, urbanism, and ecology, the firm’s focus is resilient landscapes at all scales. LOCAL will utilize the information gathered at the Community Town Halls and additional research on GI opportunities for underserved communities throughout MDC to design a series of 6-8 GI projects, or “archetypes.”
Florida International University Wetland Ecosystems Research Lab (FIU) will analyze two existing GI projects to measure their effectiveness in reducing stormwater runoff and removing contaminants and nutrients. This research will help to inform communities about the effectiveness of local GI projects and will be presented at the Community Town Halls. (This work is projected to be completed in 2024 and will be presented in Community Town Halls alongside the completed archetype designs, after the Pisces grant award term ends.)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has provided funding to enable us to do this important work.
Share Your Input
We are asking YOU, the residents and stakeholders of Miami-Dade, to suggest sites that you think can benefit from a green infrastructure project. This can be:
- Underused green space
- Parking lots and vacant lots
- Stretch of street that has no shade
- Area that always floods
- Schools, parks, trails, libraries, etc.
Go to our Community Input Tool to add your suggested locations for green infrastructure design projects.
What's your opinion about this?