Researchers shocked to discover luxury high-rise buildings are sinking at a ‘steady rate’ in Florida
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: CHANDAN KHANNA/Getty/Jeff Greenberg/Getty
Whether you're buying or renting, the last thing you want to hear as that your home is sinking at a 'steady rate' - especially if you live in the penthouse.
Yet that's the realization to the hundreds that live in the 35 luxury high-rise buildings and condos on the Miami barrier islands in Florida, following a seven-year analysis into subsidence in the area.
They are split over a stretch of Florida, with affected buildings found in Surfside, Miami Beach, Sunny Isles Beach and Bal Harbour, a study have faced subsidence in the past handful of years, the study found.
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The discovery was made by researchers from the University of Miami, University of Houston, Florida Atlantic University, California Institute of Technology and the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, as well as University of Hanover in Germany.
The sinking of the properties only amounted to between two and eight centimeters, and it was ruled that it was down to various heavy-duty construction sites in their vicinity.
The abstract read: "This study utilizes Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to examine subsidence along the coastal strip of the Miami barrier islands from 2016 to 2023. Using Sentinel-1 data, we document vertical displacements ranging from 2 to 8 cm, affecting a total of 35 coastal buildings and their vicinity.
"About half of the subsiding structures are younger than 2014 and at the majority of them subsidence decays with time. This correlation suggests that the subsidence is related to construction activities.
"In northern and central Sunny Isles Beach, where 23% of coastal structures were built during the last decade, nearly 70% are experiencing subsidence."
It continued: "The majority of the older subsiding structures show sudden onset or sudden acceleration of subsidence, suggesting that this is due to construction activities in their vicinity; we have identified subsidence at distance of 200 m, possibly up to 320 m, from construction sites.
"We attribute the observed subsidence to load-induced, prolonged creep deformation of the sandy layers within the limestone, which is accelerated, if not instigated, by construction activities.
"Distant subsidence from a construction site could indicate extended sandy deposits. Anthropogenic and natural groundwater movements could also be driving the creep deformation.
"This study demonstrates that high-rise construction on karstic barrier islands can induce creep deformation in sandy layer within the limestone succession persisting for a decade or longer.
"It showcases the potential of InSAR technology for monitoring both building settlement and structural stability."
This revelation comes over three years on from the devastating collapse of Champlain Towers South, a 12-floor condominium in Surfside, Florida, which took the lives of 98 people.
So there you have it, if you're looking at investing in a property by the coast - maybe hire a subsidence surveyor to take a look at the surrounding area... I mean, if you can instruct them too.