Miami in the Anthropocene: Rising Seas and Urban Resilience

Reimagining adaptation amidst climate change–driven mutations of urban space and life

Between its susceptibility to flooding and an ever-expanding real estate market powered by global surges of people and capital, Miami is an epicenter of the urban Anthropocene and a living laboratory for adaptation to sea level rise. Miami in the Anthropocene explores the social, environmental, and technical transformations involved in climate adaptation infrastructure and imaginaries in a global city seen as climate change ground zero.

Using Miami as a compelling microcosm for understanding the complex interplay between urbanization and environmental upheaval in the twenty-first century, Stephanie Wakefield shows how “aqua-urban futures” are being imagined for the city, from governmental scenario exercises for severe weather events to proposals to transform the city’s metropolitan area into an archipelago of islands connected by bridges. She examines the shifts reweaving the fabric of urban life and presents designs that imagine dramatic new ways of living with water.

Grounded in the dynamic landscape of Miami but reaching far beyond its shores, Miami in the Anthropocene delves into the broader debates shaping urban thought and practice in the Anthropocene. Focusing on postresilience urban designs, Wakefield illuminates the path toward a future where cities embrace opportunities for evolution rather than merely for survival.

Stephanie Wakefield is assistant professor of urban planning and environmental design at Florida Atlantic University. She is author of Anthropocene Back Loop: Experimentation in Unsafe Operating Space and coeditor of Resilience in the Anthropocene: Governance and Politics at the End of the World.