Assessment of Property Exposure to Coastal Flooding in Urban Areas: Application in Miami (FL, USA)

This study explores new ways to estimate the exposure of properties (at the plot-holding level) to coastal flooding using highly detailed inundation hazard maps (Makris et al., 2024). These are produced by a recent version of the CoastFLOOD model (Makris et al., 2023), specifically designed for high-resolution (1-2 m grid-scale) simulations of coastal inundation driven by extreme SLE scenarios along South Florida’s shorelines over a 30-year timeframe (1994-2023). The primary aim is to analyze the interannual variability of urban flooding impacts on key residential areas in Miami, while evaluating building-level exposure to seawater flooding along the Biscayne Bay coast and in Miami Beach. The study also investigates long-term SLE trends and extremes using historical tide-gauge records to minimize uncertainty in environmental parametric inputs. The goal is to improve understanding of the impacts of seawater inundation and to support coastal flood risk assessment at the building and property levels using detailed GIS flood maps.