Design for Sustainability : Wetland Miami

D E S I G N F O R S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y

ANAMARIA MUNAR JUANJOSÉ GALINDO

CITY Miami, Florida, USA • Population: 467,963 (2019) • Pop. Metroplitan Area: 6.1 million • Average meter above sea level: 1. 8m • USA´s 2nd biggest Touristic Hub • Climate: Tropical monsoon • Wet seasons: June - October

PROBLEM Floods Principal causes: • Climate change: 1. Sea Level Rising 2. Storms 3. Rains • Construction over nature

ECOSYSTEM Everglades • Area: 20.202 km2 • Invasive species • Flood Control & (Human intervention) • 40 mammal species, 50 reptiles, 300+ fish • 100 species of plants, 120 species of trees

Taxodium distichum

BALD CYPRESS Characteristics: Can grow to about 150 feet and reach six feet in diameter, they live more than 500 years.

• The roots go out the soil and could play a structural role, making the root system stronger in the face of high wind or with oxygen improvement but there is no evidence.

• Erosion Control: Riverine swamps of bald cypress reduce damage from floods and act as sediment and pollutant traps as they cause floodwaters to spread out, slow down, and infiltrate the soil.

Environment: These trees like growing near water, like on the banks of lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds.

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Are generally in very wet soils consisting of muck, clay or fine sand where moisture is abundant.

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Found on flat or nearly flat topography at elevations less than 100 feet above sea level.

• Site Rehabilitation: It has potential for rehabilitating margins of surface-mined lakes. Cypress domes can serve as tertiary sewage treatment facilities for improving water quality and recharging groundwater.

Nymphaeaceae

WATER LILY • Characteristics: They don't need adaptations for absorbing, moving or saving water.

• Also don’t need to grow elaborate root structures or vascular tissues because the buoyant water keeps them afloat, they focus on maintaining strong leaves • Their flowers and broad, flat, floating leaves let them gather the maximum amount of sunlight and have less resistance to the water current.

Environment: They are usually found in wetlands, lakes, ponds and other places in temperate or tropical regions.

stomata

• Their leaves and stems contain wide air spaces that run all the way down to the roots providing more buoyancy.

RED MANGROVE

Rhizophora mangle

Characteristics: Distinguished by their reddish prop roots. they grow downward from the branches until 1m above the surface. It increases the stability of the tree as well as oxygen supply to underground roots, also their seeds come from there so other ones can grow in the water.

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During intense storms, mangrove forests act as a buffer, reducing wave action, preventing erosion, and absorbing floodwaters.

They provide a habitat to fish and crustaceans, birds, and more.

Environment: Are generally found closest to the water's edge in coastal and estuarine areas of the tropics and subtropics to about 28° in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

REFERENCES • https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_tadi2.pdf • https://kimmerer.com/good-knees-said-baldcypress/ • https://sciencing.com/aquatic-plants-special-adaptive-features6748354.html • https://venngage.net/p/238949/adaptation-of-waterlilies-hydrophytes • https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article70145652 .html • https://naturalhistory2.si.edu/smsfp/irlspec/Rhizop_mangle.htm • https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Plants-andFungi/Red-Mangrove