A bus plows through a flooded street that was caused by the combination of the lunar orbit which caused seasonal high tides and what many believe is the rising sea levels due to climate change in Miami Beach, Florida.

(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Since 2006, flooding in Miami Beach has spiked drastically, and a new study from the University of Miami used insurance claims, media reports and tidal gauges to determine just how wild the flooding has become.

In the last decade, flooding has gone up 400 percent from high tides and 33 percent from rain, according to the study, published this week in the journal Ocean and Coastal Management. The high waters are blamed on a regional sea level rise that's much higher than the global rate, a warning that waters can rise at different rates across the Earth.

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“I was completely shocked when I found it was rising so fast,” University of Miami geophysicist and study lead author Shimon Wdowinski told the Miami Herald.

Tidal gauges in South Florida showed an increase in sea levels on pace with that of the rest of the world from 1998 to 2006, with levels jumping an average of .04 to .2 inches a year, the study found. However, in 2006, local levels underwent a dramatic spike, increasing by an average of .2 to .5 inches per year, much higher than global averages. The heightened levels left widespread effects on flooding during high tides and the region’s wet season.

Business owners, developers and contractors have already been warned of the looming effects the rising sea levels could have on property value, making South Florida the epicenter for economic impact.

“All eyes are upon us and South Florida isn’t ready,” Wayne Pathman, a South Florida land use and environmental attorney, told the Real Deal, a South Florida real estate news site.

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The state of Florida will have the most population at risk under worst-case projections, which estimate a 6-foot rise in seas by 2100, according to the Miami Herald. In addition, a whopping $152 billion worth of property will be under threat of flooding statewide by 2050, ranking first in a 2015 national survey, the report added.

If local sea rise rates are significantly higher than global averages, pumps, raised roads and other solutions for flooding will only provide protection for a shorter period of time than planned, researchers warn.

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Sea Level Rise in Miami Beach

A woman rides a bike along the chalk outline showing how far inland 3 feet of sea level rise would reach in Miami Beach, Fla. (Courtesy Jayme Gershen/High Water Line)