I recently returned from week-long trip to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with the CityLinks team where we hosted a delegation of four local government practitioners from Legazpi, Philippines to share promising practices in urban climate adaptation and resilience. Legazpi and Ft. Lauderale face similar climate challenges, even though they are on opposite sides of the planet. Both cities are low-lying and coastal, and face serious vulnerabilities from increased weather events (typhoons and hurricanes), sea level rise, extreme heat, and flooding (just to name a few). Our week in Ft. Lauderdale was rich in shared learning; we focused on everything from stormwater pumping infrastructure to coastal restoration and comprehensive planning. Soon after the trip, a typhoon hit Legazpi – reminding us once again the importance of accelerating global preparedness for climate change.  

Ft. Lauderdale is located in Southeast Florida, a region that has lost about half of its wetlands to development. This has left Ft. Lauderdale reliant upon mechanical pumping infrastructure to avoid widespread flooding during storm events. We visited several pumping stations on both sides of Southeast Florida: to the west, pumps move water into the Everglades; in the east, water is pumped into the Atlantic Ocean.

The team from Legazpi is currently constructing two pumping stations of their own to mitigate flooding, and the stations represent the largest infrastructure investments ever undertaken in the city. The team witnessed the constant, 24/7 monitoring and management required to operate the Southeast Florida pumps, and the planning that goes into preparing for storm deluges in the rainy season. This gave them a real-time glimpse of the benefits and maintenance costs of pumping infrastructure, but it also spurred a fruitful conversation about the role of green infrastructure and comprehensive planning in handling stormwater. As Legazpi prepares for rapid urbanization and new stressors from climate change, they have the opportunity to avoid some of the historical mistakes made in Southeast Florida and plan for more integrated land use that works with natural systems’ ability to deliver key ecosystem services.

The team also visited several sites that are already feeling the impact of sea level rise. Route 1A in Ft. Lauderdale, home to the city’s iconic boardwalk and beach, was completely washed out during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The team toured the beachfront protection measures that were installed during the restoration, including a sea wall between the beach and the road. They also visited mangrove and sand dune restoration projects sponsored by The Nature Conservancy, and inspected stormwater tidal valves that prevent tidal groundwater from flooding the streets via storm drains.

At the end of the week, the Legazpi team began to plan for the CityLinks team’s final visit to Legazpi in September. They put together a proposal to work with Ft. Lauderdale staff to create sea level rise inundation maps for their city. The maps will be incorporated into Legazpi’s existing hazard zone maps and will be used to plan future growth, including planned waterfront developments. The visit exemplified the benefits of city-to-city exchanges. Deep learning was had from Ft. Lauderdale and Legazpi, which is being put in use in practical ways to advance development goals.