This thesis investigates the effectiveness of Low Impact Development Infrastructure (LIDI) and Green Infrastructure (GI) in reducing flooding resulting from heavy rainfall events and sea-level rise, and in improving stormwater quality in the City of Miami Beach (CMB). InfoSWMM was used to simulate the 5, 10, and 100-year, 24-hour storm events, total suspended solids (TSS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) loadings, and in evaluating the potential of selected LIDI and GI solutions in North Shore neighborhood.
Post-development results revealed a decrease of 48%, 46%, and 39% in runoff, a decrease of 57%, 60%, and 62% in TSS, a decrease of 82%, 82%, and 84% in BOD, and a decrease of 69%, 69%, and 70% in COD loadings. SWMM 5.1 was also used to simulate the king tide effect in a cross section in Indian Creek Drive. The proposed design simulations successfully demonstrated the potential to control flooding, showing that innovative technologies offer the city opportunities to cope with climate impacts. This study should be most helpful to the CMB to support its management of flooding under any adaptation scenarios that may possibly result from climate changes. Flooding could be again caused as a result of changes in inland flooding from precipitation patterns or from sea-level rise or both.
