Calibrating Coastal Resilience

by Sonia R Cháo

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032404035
Publisher:	CRC Press
Publication date:	06/17/2025
Pages:	340
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sonia Cháo teaches, writes, and specializes 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 and 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 interinstitutional, research initiatives, which have led to the development of the SSBV model, the terroir framework, and 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.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface

Author biography

Contributors

1. Embracing an Ecological Approach to Urban Design in the Anthropocene Era: Invaluable Lessons from History on the Advantages of Understanding, Evaluating, and Coexisting Harmoniously with Nature
   / Sonia Cháo and Gustavo Sánchez Hugalde
2. Multi-faceted Challenges and Socio-Economic Considerations
   / Sonia Cháo with contributions by Gustavo Sánchez Hugalde
3. Addressing the Nature-Culture Dichotomy through Adaptive City Siting and Design in Response to the Emerging Climate Predicament
   / Sonia Cháo with contributions by Gustavo Sánchez Hugalde and Madeleine Li
4. Manifesting the ‘Urban Terroir’: introducing a hyper-local & holistic framework for a climate-challenged era
   / Sonia Cháo with contributions by Gustavo Sánchez Hugalde
5. Re-mapping our Future through a Novel Approach: The Urban Terroir Principles, Priorities, Methods, and Tools
   / Sonia Cháo
6. Calibrating Coastal Urban Vulnerabilities and Resilience through Modeling
   / Sonia Cháo and Benjamin Ghansah
7. The 'SSBV Synoptic Survey': Precedents, Climate-Framework, Associated Protocols, and Contributions to the 'Storm Surge Building Vulnerability Model' Sonia Cháo, Benjamin Ghansah, and Timothy Norris
8. Development of the Storm Surge Building Vulnerability Model (SSBV): A Hyper-local Flood Vulnerability Model for Coastal Regions
   / Sonia Cháo and Benjamin Ghansah
9. The Storm Surge Building Vulnerability Model: Assessing Coastal Morphological and Typological Paradigms through Four Case Studies
   / Sonia Cháo and Benjamin Ghansah
10. Resolving the Terse Paradox Between Historic Preservation and Climate Adaptation: A Proposed Sliding-Scale Benchmarking System
    / Sonia Cháo
11. Effectively Communicating Resilient Affordable Housing and Preservation Alternatives Messages to Community Stakeholders
    / Sonia Cháo and Madeleine Li
12. The evolving role of governmental partnerships in climate adaptation planning in the face of multiple and escalating flood hazards
    / Katherine Hagemann, Sonia Cháo and Madeleine Li

 Acknowledgments