Tale of Two Barrier Islands: Climate Change Management Challenges and Opportunities in Miami Beach FL and Shishmaref AK

The two case studies presented in this chapter illustrate a wide range of climate change management challenges and opportunities. Miami Beach, Florida (population 2019 88,885), is a wealthy, fully modern economy with an enormous tourist sector, which has self-funded more than $US 400 million in infrastructure to deal with current and future flooding from sea-level rise and storms. By contrast Shishmaref, Alaska, is an Inupiat (Native American) community of 613 people (2019) practicing a largely subsistence lifestyle north of the Bering Strait on the Pacific Rim. Its only practical future is a high-cost relocation with external funding (not now available) to the nearby mainland. The two cases represent a range of barrier island communities, different in wealth, demographics, and climate change adaptation possibilities. However, they do share the same likelihood of being overcome by sea-level rise later in this century. From an analysis of these cases, conclusions are drawn about: the planning horizon for barrier islands; the importance of citizen participation in planning; costs; distributive issues, including those related to indigenous communities; and the appropriate roles of regional and national governments in dealing with climate change. The conclusions that can be drawn from these two case studies illustrate the importance of developing many more well-attested cases to guide future adaptation planning.