Originally Posted: Central Florida Public Media | By Talia Blake

Client: GHD

Published July 31, 2024 at 8:20 AM EDT

CROSSROADS Report

A new report from GHD, a global engineering firm, shows young Floridians have a gloomy outlook on the future of Florida’s infrastructure.

CROSSROADS found that Generation X,Y, and Z Floridians were the most pessimistic out of the four major states surveyed, including New York, California, and Texas.

Maria Lehman, director of U.S. Infrastructure at GHD, says two-thirds of Floridians want better environmental sustainability.

“Because they see how that can impact,” she said. “It’s really important that people understand the challenges we’re facing. The infrastructure is getting older, whether it’s roads or bridges or airports, they’re not keeping up with the capacity that they need.”

Among the states surveyed, Lehman said the cost of living and environmental concerns are a top priority for Floridians, especially water.

“Whether it’s stormwater, the saltwater intrusion, or just having safe and clean drinking water,” she said. “The concerns in Florida were very high.”

Water and the cost of living were also rated as a major concern for California, Lehman adds.

One area Florida excelled in the report was in public education.

“Other states felt there needs to be more public education. Florida, it seems like the public gets it more than other states, said Lehman. “They don’t need that public education component as much of why these things are important. Where the other three big ones, there is this belief that the general public doesn’t understand the problem.”

Flooding in Florida

Florida has been experiencing more intense rain events in recent years.

Lehman said intense rain in the Sunshine State is nothing new, but we’re experiencing more rain in a smaller time frame.

“Having regular rainfalls at the intensities that we’re seeing is not what the past was, and our systems aren’t built for that,” she said.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wetlands covered more than half of Florida’s more than 20 million acres in predevelopment times.

As Florida developed roads and other infrastructure, Lehman said water from intense rain events now have fewer places to go.

“There’s concrete in a whole lot of places that used to be wetland. So you’ve got to build other areas that can take it,” she said. “And quite frankly, that will help. You’re not going to get as much of the heat island effect if you do that because it helps cool down the area around it. And it’ll help with not having as much flooding.”

Model Example

CROSSROADS survey also looked at infrastructure in other parts of the world, and Lehman said there are good examples Florida can follow to improve its infrastructure.

For example, Singapore uses central cooling systems to help relieve an entire district from the heat.

A district cooling system is a closed network of pipes filled with chilled water that travels from the district cooling plant to buildings in a certain area, according to the International Energy Agency.

Singapore is also using green roofs, as plants can help cool buildings and absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that helps trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere.

The green roof at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Lehman thinks Singapore will be the status quo for infrastructure in 50 years.

“Orlando is going to become a mega city,” she said.” So you’ve got to think about how you provide it because by having all these different levels of government doing this, that’s expensive.”