This episode is part of Central Florida Public Media's special series "Central Florida Seen and Heard: Rising Water," exploring the effects of water on Central Florida and urgent calls to address policy and other barriers to change as we prepare for a supercharged upcoming storm season.
Keeping Kennedy Space Center launch pads dry
After Superstorm Sandy in 2012, engineers at the Kennedy Space Center were motivated to start doing more to protect the launch pads and the area from flooding and erosion.
The Kennedy Space Center is surrounded by water. It’s by design, protecting nearby people from possible launch accidents. But it’s also one of the facility's biggest threats – which is in a constant battle preventing water intrusion from affecting launch pads.
Tom Ingler, the Director of Center Planning and Development for Kennedy Space Center, said when engineers first constructed the launch pads, elevation was essential to avoid groundwater flooding. Because the launch pads have water on all sides, Ingler said they have been working to try to mitigate the flooding, including supporting nearby sand dunes.
“We've experienced several storms since the dunes were put together. Proud to say for the team that designed the dune restoration project that dunes have held up really well,” Ingler said. “The intent was to protect the infrastructure that sits on the other side of the water from the dunes. And so far that's gone really well. It's not a guarantee, it is one of the mitigation measures that we need to be looking at long term.”
While climate change and rising seas are a slow and long-term threat, Kennedy Space Center has been developing projects to combat flooding in the short term. Along with dune restoration, they are trying to elevate a road called Phillips Parkway that stretches between the dunes and launch sites.
“So as part of our planning process, we have taken look at all the different factors that that would affect the type of construction we're doing, which not just includes sea level rise and the existing wetlands that we have, but threatened and endangered species and factors like that,” Ingler said. “So we've actually narrowed down our development areas into a few small areas that allows us to basically protect against all of those different factors including sea level rise and potential for those larger storms.”
Since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, Kennedy Space Center is working to became a multi-user space port, hosting both government agencies and commercial companies. With four companies — SpaceX, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing — calling KSC home, Ingler said it is essential to protect the space center for the future of space exploration.
“We definitely need to protect it the best as we can and ensure that the advantages that have been gained by opening up our Space Center to commercial companies continues to pay dividends and really benefit the American public as a whole,” Ingler said. “And it's been significant. It's something to really be proud of, and like I said, this environment exists nowhere else in the world.”
Saving Space Coast history before it washes away
Anthropologists in Central Florida are trying to preserve the history that is scattered along the Space Coast — from thed decades-ago space race to evidence of the first Indian River inhabitants thousands of years ago. Once dry artifacts are now soaked in water including ancient pottery and village sites.
In the Indian River Lagoon, anthropologist like Stacy Barber are trying to dig up that history before the water takes it. While water can help preserve some artifacts, when water creeps in on previously dry sites, the water can change the artifact completely.
“Things like cloth and hair and fingernails preserve, really so water can be this real boon to archaeology,” Barber said. “However, if the site is dry and then water starts to creep into the site, when you have that change in conditions, that's when you really see destruction of sites. We are also finding as water rises, that the archeological remains that previously were dry land are now inundated.”
Barber said the Space Coast was once home to possibly thousands of people in the precontact period. Because of rising sea levels, she now must wade out into places like the Indian River Lagoon for her research.
As water creeps in and threatens to destroy this history, Barber is hopeful that people can see the gravity of what could be lost if climate change and sea level rise continue to grow.
“Our past is our memory,” Barber said. “And we don't know who we are, if we don't know where we've come from. The people who lived on the Indian River Lagoon prior to Spanish arrival are unfortunately not are not the ancestors of the vast majority of Floridians today; however, the people who lived for the contract on the Indian River Lagoon were the people who created the lagoon that we inherited today.”
While there are no perfect answers to fix some of these problems with flooding and water moving onto dry sites, anthropologists must wade out into the water before it is too late. And anthropologists like Barber are working to preserve more recent history – like that of the history of the U.S. space race of the 1950s and 60s.
“In the short term, what I can do is I can dig these sites and document these sites before they get washed away in the hopes that while those sites may be gone, the materials that were in them are protected in in climate-controlled conditions,” Barber said. “And we have my field notes, and we have my radiocarbon dates and all of those things, to allow future researchers to continue to understand and build on our knowledge of that past.”
