CBS: How well is New York City prepared for the complexities of climate change, like flooding? Since Superstorm Sandy hit in 2012, New York has been increasing its flood resiliency plans.
“The reality is we’re never going to be fully prepared for a storm like Sandy,” New York Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala said.
New York City’s flood resiliency efforts
New York City is known as a concrete jungle due to its high rises, lack of trees, congestion, and toughness. It’s also a coastal city.
A $1.5 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency Project at Stuyvesant Cove Park is the largest single coastal flood resiliency undertaking in New York City, Aggarwala said.
“This will keep up to 13 feet of tidal surge in the East River and protect the East Side,” Aggarwala said.
Further south in Manhattan, green infrastructure at the new Battery Park Resilience Project isn’t just about flood barriers and stormwater drainage. The open green space attracts visitors from all over. On rainy days, the turf on a number of school playgrounds – that students actually help design – aren’t just there for good looks. Like the other projects, they avert water that would otherwise overwhelm the city sewer system and treatment plants.
“We’ve estimated that we’ve been able to capture about 40 million gallons of stormwater each year from our playgrounds,” Mary Alice Lee of the Trust for Public Land said. “That’s a large chunk of water that’s not going into the city’s sewer system.” Read more>>
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