As coastal cities face heavier storm waves and flooding, traditional seawalls are expensive to maintain and may not protect coastlines against extreme events such as hurricanes. We will test and install structures made from modular concrete tube-like units called SEAHIVE® at one or more coastal sites in South Florida. Our goal is to demonstrate how SEAHIVE® reduces wave energy and creates cost-effective, easy-to-produce shoreline infrastructure for stronger coastal defenses.
Why We Care
Cities in Florida, including Miami, are growing rapidly, and coastal communities in the region face a greater risk to life and property from extreme weather events including hurricanes, storm waves, and flooding. Traditional coastal infrastructure such as seawalls are costly to build and maintain, and may actually magnify the impact of powerful storm waves. Testing innovations in coastal defense technology, like SEAHIVE® modular structures, advances our ability to protect lives and property from harm in affordable, effective, and sustainable ways.
What We Are Doing
We are piloting a cost-effective, sustainable alternative to seawalls or breakwaters called SEAHIVE®. SEAHIVE® are modular hexagon-shaped tubes of drycast concrete that can be stacked into different configurations as needed, and can be manufactured at low cost using existing concrete pipe-making techniques. SEAHIVE® modules have holes along their sides that allow water to pass through while weakening its flow, which has been shown in the laboratory to reduce wave intensity more efficiently than stone seawalls or breakwaters. SEAHIVE® may also serve as a starter habitat for restoration of barrier islands, mangroves, and oyster habitats.
SEAHIVE® has undergone a series of engineering tests in the laboratory to verify the strength of these structures, which is further strengthened against powerful waves by wrapping the outsides with flexible fiber. In March 2023, SEAHIVE® with support from local agencies conducted three pilot installations in Southeast Florida.
For this project, we will test SEAHIVE® structures prior to installation at one or more different sites in Florida to better understand their capabilities under field conditions. Sites selected for SEAHIVE® demonstration projects will be monitored to assess the engineering and ecological performance of the SEAHIVE® system.
Benefits of Our Work
The project will provide an opportunity to demonstrate a sustainable and effective way to protect Florida’s coastal communities from extreme weather events. Demo installations will serve as scalable and replicable models for other coastal communities to show how they can contribute to coastal resilience and mitigation efforts. Coastal managers and infrastructure experts may be able to implement SEAHIVE® to support existing shoreline structures such as seawalls and breakwaters, protect major roadways from erosion, and restore areas such as barrier islands that naturally act as wave absorbers.
This project is led by Drs. Antonio Nanni and Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos at the University of Miami, and is funded through a Congressionally-directed Community Project.
