Calibrating Coastal Resilience

Calibrating Coastal Resilience presents a conceptual reimagining of place in the era of climate change. The urban terroir framework introduced by the authors offers a holistic, data-driven approach to assessing vulnerabilities in the built environment and in designing cities. Inspired by the hyperlocal relationships between humans, cultural traditions, and urban and natural contexts, the authors develop a place-based, historically sympathetic methodology for guiding climate-related urban policies, designs, and actions in coastal areas. Coastal communities have been among the first to experience the devastating consequences of the climate crisis. Using case studies from South Florida, the book illustrates the unique climate risks for this region, including flooding, hurricane, and sea-level rise scenarios, with a focus on the preservation of historic neighborhoods and buildings and reinforcement of built structures.

Drawing from the authors’ extensive experience in community planning and historic preservation in cities severely affected by the impacts of climate change, this book introduces practical methods for identifying and aligning preservation goals with resilience needs, including a novel and comprehensive methodology that combines their Storm Surge Building Vulnerability (SSVB) additive model with a Synoptic Survey digital method and associated proticols, and a cultural asset benchmarking system that intersects resilience and preservation objectives. Refined through real-life application and the experience of Southeast Florida preparing for and responding to climate change, these techniques are highly specialized yet designed for ease of implementation.

A valuable resource for professionals and students of architecture, urban planning, historic preservation, and local governments globally, Calibrating Coastal Resilience offers communities clear guidelines and actionable steps toward creating place-based resilience planning strategies to safeguard the natural and built landscapes of their region.

Sonia Cháo teaches, writes, and specialises in sustainable architecture and urbanism, resilient design, and historic preservation in the subtropics. She is the Associate Dean of Research at the University of Miami School of Architecture, the director of the Coastal Resilience (CoRe) Lab. She previously served as one of the founding co-directors of the interdisciplinary Master of Professional Science in Urban Sustainability and Resilience program, and was the prior director of the Center for Community & Urban Design in Miami between 2006 and 2021. She has led various interdisciplinary, and at times inter-institutional, research initiatives, which have led to the development of the SSBV model, the terroir framework, as well as numerous publications, exhibitions, symposia, and partnerships with communities to promote sustainable and climate-resilient design practices. Her work has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Science Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Barr Foundation, and other funders.