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Climate change has had a number of effects on cities around the world, including rising see levels. And, this has become an especially big problem for coastal cities. City officials must now prepare for higher tides on their coasts. The American city of Miami is one example. Located in South Florida, Miami is home to nearly 3 million people and billions of dollars in land and buildings.
Miami is one of the cities in America most at risk for rising sea levels. The waterfront is central to Miami's culture and economy. But as the seas rise with climate change .the water will not stay put. Large parts of South Florida are in danger of being under water in the coming years. Across Biscayne Bay, the City of Miami Beach is making improvements - raising streets, adding water pumps and more.
It is costing the city a lot of money. Local communities will spend 500 million dollars for the improvements. Thankfully, the residents, the folks that are paying the bill for this work, realize that the cost of doing nothing is much greater. A possibility officials are discussing with residents is for city to buy homes in some places where flooding has been a problem. The city would then turn that land into parks of grassland that could hold the water.
Over time, the city may need to take bigger risks. Miami's future depends largely on how much, and how fast, the oceans rise.
Caroline Lewis leads the climate activism group, the CLEO Institute. She says cities cannot avoid the need to move inland. But, she says，a well-planned withdrawal (撤退) could include measures to keep people safely in place for as long as possible. And, she says, the world could learn from such a model. In these two Florida cities built on wetlands, there remains a lot of hopefulness.
