Opinion: Flood protection needs a revamp in 2021 before the next Sandy
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Dr. Shimrit Perkol-Finkel is an award-winning marine biologist and CEO of ECOncrete. Photo courtesy of ECOncrete
By Dr. Shimrit Perkol-Finkel
Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are at risk of having their homes flood every year, and don’t have enough information to know it until tides are creeping up their lawns. This year’s tropical storms Fay and Isaias are heralds of the stormy season that has yet to end. In fact, New York even received an F on the Natural Resource Defense Council’s test for flood disclosure rules.
By 2100, Sandy-like flooding is expected to be the new normal. As temperatures and sea levels rise, a home located in the 100-year floodplain has a 25 percent chance of flooding over the course of a 30-year mortgage. Even without Sandy-level storms, sea level rise is causing the “sunny day” high tides that roll in from Jamaica Bay and swamp Queens neighborhoods with nearly seven-foot flooding, bringing swans and tiny fish to the watery streets of Hamilton Beach.
There are various options for dealing with flooding risks. Some communities in the city have retreated from their vulnerable neighborhoods, selling their homes and relocating to flee from rising waters. Along Rockaway Beach, reconnecting Sandy-affected communities meant rebuilding the boardwalk with flood protections like onshore concrete walls and sand restoration. Yet even with the heavy-duty construction, Far Rockaway is flooded by high tides and storms.
There is controversy around intensive in-water flooding solutions. 70% of marine infrastructure is made of concrete, but structures like seawalls and breakwaters made of this material do not support the species native to the Rockaways and Jamaica Bay. Instead, invasive species find it easier to take over conventional concrete barriers. This ecological change quickly destroys native ecosystem functions, resulting in shores that erode more quickly and the communities along them becoming more vulnerable to high water.
Abandoning communities to the tides or heavily engineering our coasts with the cementitious materials responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions are two extreme methods to reduce flooding risk. Both come at a large cost, and at the expense of the other. We know that for true climate change resilience we need effectively engineered protections. At the same time, we need to restore native ecosystems that have been softening storms for millenia.
There are opportunities for a revamping across dozens of restoration projects trying to meet the competing environmental and structural needs. On the eastern end of Jamaica Bay, oyster reef restoration efforts by the Billion Oyster Project (BOP) are highlighting the potential for targeted solutions with lots of co-benefits. By restoring Head of Bay’s native oyster reefs, the BOP is rebuilding natural wave buffers that soften storms and help maintain wide shores. The oysters are filtering pollutants from the Bay’s water. Herons, plovers, and local residents fish the cleaner waters every day. By partnering with the Harbor School, the Project mobilizes citizen scientists of all ages and backgrounds to unify around stewardship of the bay, and engage in educational work with a big climate impact.
Strong native ecosystems and effective structural defenses work hand in hand to build climate change resilience, and create opportunities for employment, education, and recreation. Projects like these that minimize the tradeoffs between development and restoration are key to alleviating the pressure residents feel to take matters into their own hands.
After Sandy’s flooding caused electrical fires that burned Breezy Point to the ground, the neighborhood recovered and rebuilt out of the charred and flooded remains. The Breezy Point community spent over $100,000 to build a dune that’s supposed to protect from the next big storm. Proactive storm protection doesn’t have to be a last minute dune construction, or placement of lifeless concrete along Rockaway Beach. Harnessing natural processes is key to the future of the shorelines of Queens. Nature’s fixes working together with modern technologies are the catalyst for a new generation of innovations that reduce tradeoffs and enable New York to lead the nation in sustainable flood protections.
You can give your inputs to the Department of City Planning and share your ideas for the future of Queens' shorelines by participating in the once-in-a-decade update of the Comprehensive Waterfront Plan
Shimrit Perkol-Finkel, PhD is an award winning marine biologist and CEO of ECOncrete, which specializes in rugged full-scale coastal protections made of bio-enhancing concrete. ECOncrete designs and delivers technologies for resilient fortified coastlines that are teeming with life and accessible to all.
