SCAPE / Landscape Architecture
New York

Impacts of Hurricane Sandy were felt throughout the Hudson watershed, devastating communities and villages along the Hudson River Valley. Piermont, a community based on river tourism and recreation on the expanded west bank of the river, sustained varying degrees of damage in part based on the lack or presence of natural systems. North of Piermont Pier, homes and water-based restaurant and marina enterprises were badly damaged after the storm. South of the pier, a thick Phragmites marsh broke waves, attenuated surge, and protected shoreline residents to a greater degree. Restoration plans to remove invasive plants in the marshlands have the potential to increase coastal fragility in the short term, while the remainder of the recreational waterfront remains at-risk. We propose to look at the modification and restoration of historic ecosystems, including tidal marshlands and historic oyster reefs, as a new risk-reducing ecological infrastructure along the shoreline.

Download the boards presented by SCAPE /Landscape Architecture in 2013.