Strategizing Sea Level Rise and Storm Impacts New York City Breezy Point, Queens, NY - Baltimore Sun In late October of 2012, Hurricane Sandy provided

Strategizing Sea Level Rise and Storm Impacts

New York City

Breezy Point, Queens, NY - Baltimore Sun

In late October of 2012, Hurricane Sandy provided a perfect storm of warm water, wind, vulnerable topography, lunar high tide, full moon, urbanization, natural protective barrier elimination, which brought a storm surge estimated at 13.88 feet into New York City surpassing the previous record of 11.2 feet from the 1821 hurricane. The storm left a wake of physical, economic and environmental damage with death, destruction, pollution, and displacement.

Hurricane Sandy Devastation

New York City

Breezy Point, Queens, NY - Baltimore Sun CBS Local


New York City

Rockaway, Queens, NY - Catholic News Agency


New York City

Rockaway, Queens, NY


New York City

Rockaway Beach, Queens, NY - Der Kosmonaut


New York City

Far Rockaway, Queens, NY - NY Daily News


After Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy, Impacts NY - NASA

Engineers use the term "resilience" to define storm proofing the city parcel by parcel to make it brunt a surge without major damage or enormous immediate cost. Would immediate and intermediate strategies be sufficient to protect New York City from sea level rise and storm damage in future?

When a hurricane hits New York City, a wall of water surges toward the unprotected shore. Even the least powerful Category 1 - Hurricane Sandy can cause catastrophic damage. New York City is strategically set above a very shallow Continental shelf within a great harbor fed by the Hudson and Raritan rivers at the L shaped apex of New Jersey and Long Island, forming the New York Bight. Storms are funneled toward the city, with storm surges amplified by the shallow harbor’s seafloor.


After Hurricane Sandy

Strategizing Sea Level Rise and Storm ImpactsOver the years, New York City has filled the coastal wetlands and built upon the coastal dunes. This has removed the natural flood control, storm mitigation, and bioremediation that coastal wetlands, dunes and oyster reefs provide. Places like Rockaway, Coney Island and Manhattan Beach are stretches of land that nature has created to protect the mainland from hurricanes. Filling and development have removed 90% of New York City’s historic coastal wetlands. The remaining tidal wetlands are located around Jamaica Bay, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.

The wetlands provide natural flood control by holding and releasing storm water, moderate a storm surge, control erosion and stabilize the shoreline. Wetlands provide critical habitat for fish and other species, wildlife habitat, and provide recreational and educational opportunities. Wetlands improve water quality by removing nutrients, waste, and sediment from storm-water runoff.

Strategizing Sea Level Rise and Storm ImpactsStrategizing Sea Level Rise and Storm Impacts

The location allowed New Amsterdam to become a thriving seaport and the most populous city in America, housing the nation’s financial district, industry, commerce, transportation, and the arts. More than 20 million people live in the greater metropolitan region today. Many live on coastal land, reclaimed wetlands and barrier islands. 375,000 people live within the floodplain Evacuation-A zone. 3. Much of Lower Manhattan is built on landfill. Places like Rockaway, Coney Island and Manhattan Beach are stretches of land that nature has created to protect the mainland from hurricanes. Lower Manhattan is home to Wall Street and the financial district, complex transportation and communication networks, water and sewerage systems, industry, commerce, residential properties and high-rise towers rivaling the Hong Kong skyline. New York City has developed land within the flood plain zones and hurricane surge zone locations. Structure surrounding New York Harbor and Jamaica Bay are within the 16' above sea level flood plain zone of a Category 2-3 hurricane. New York City is here to stay. The question is how best to sustainably insure her survival in an age of rising tides and intensifying storms?

New York City Hurricane Evacuation Zones


The most vulnerable areas subject to hurricane tidal surges and sea level rise, historically provided natural storm damage protections for New York City. These areas include the Long Island shore line and barrier beaches, Far Rockaway, Rockaway Park, Breezy Point, Coney Island and State Island shorelines. Planning has begun in New York to use resilient strategies to address sea-level rise and storm impacts. Specific projects include the creation of an elevated, vegetated sand-dune spanning the exposed Atlantic Ocean barrier beach edge of Long Island and Coney Island with a cost of $20-$100 million. The Army Corps of Engineers is already working on a $25 million beach fill project at Sea Gate, located at the tip of Coney Island. The Army Corps is also studying the application and elevation of sand dunes on the beaches of the Rockaways. An additional $1 million of funding is required to complete the engineering studies. $150 million would pay for marsh restoration and upgrading the waste treatment plant within Jamaica Bay to improve water quality and storm related contamination and damage.

Storm Surge Water Depth


A tangible and viable solution for New York City’s vulnerability to storm damage is to reconstruct the historic wetlands through the creation of barrier islands, salt marshes, sand plains and dunes based on scientific and engineering review. The reconstruction and maintenance of the marshes will provide natural storm mitigation at a fraction of the cost of large-scale structural solutions. Further, there is near unanimous consent to restore the wetlands and construct new coastal marshes and dunes. Coastal wetland reconstruction makes economic and ecological sense. There has been near unanimous support for restoring and recreating coastal wetlands from the Federal Army Corps, of Engineers, to the New York Governors office, to the Mayor’s office to the neighborhoods throughout New York City and the surrounding counties.

Reconstructing Coastal Wetlands

Jamaica Bay Wetland Reconstruction - Columbia University


The reestablishment of estuary functions including flood amelioration, bioremediation, fishery, reef building for natural estuary armoring are measures that can assist the city to reduce the impact of storms in future. When combined with open space and wetland restoration and construction, flooding and flood surge can be deadened. Sustainable development and regulatory review and education will allow properties to be reviewed for storm upgrades or demolition within critical hazard zones. The buffer zones within critical hazard areas can be used for storm hazard protection. Natural resource protection will provide protection and enhancement and creation of green space, forested lands, coastal wetlands and reefs to create natural storm amelioration and pollution mitigation.

Reconstructing Coastal Wetlands


A stone seawall is proposed on the most vulnerable coastal edge of the Rockaways with infill dunes within these locations. Sand dunes are an important part of the coast as they are land’s first defense against the forces of the ocean. Because of this, management of sand dunes should focus on the natural authenticity and values of the dunes themselves including flora, fauna, and the ecosystem as a whole. The concept of integrated management can be incorporated into management of coastal sand dunes to create conditions for future natural processes.

The coastal sand dunes that run the length of Breezy Point to Rockaway Park are fragmented and no longer serve as the coastal protection that the neighborhoods need. The existing dunes need to be reconstructed with a hard central core to a height, which will repel a Category 3 hurricane tidal surge of 30 feet.

Reconstructing Coastal Sand Dunes

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Strategizing Sea Level Rise and Storm ImpactsStrategizing Sea Level Rise and Storm ImpactsReconstructing Coastal Sand Dunes

Beyond the narrow ribbon of salt marsh, between land and sea, lies the sand plain and dunes. Whereas the salt marsh is a landscape of water, the sand plain is a landscape of fire. The soils are dry and porous; the plants are those which can survive fire and drought. Some, as the pitch pine, are dependant on fire to open their cones to seed, others survive the droughts and fires as black oak, bear berry, sweet fern, cladonia and andropogon grasses. The plant palette like the salt marsh has adapted over time to survive the harsh conditions of the sand plain. The landscape mosaic of the sand plain has been documented over the years using aerial photography, ground level photography, drawings and color analysis to communicate the subtle beauty and unique qualities of the sand plain to the public.

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Strategizing Sea Level Rise and Storm ImpactsStrategizing Sea Level Rise and Storm ImpactsBarrier Islands and Armored Open Space Extension

The principals of resilience as a strategy for sea level rise and storm impact attenuation to the vulnerable Breezy Point to Rockaway Park to Far Rockaway coastline to protect this coastal peninsula from the predicted tidal surges of a Category 3 storm compounded with sea level rise. A tidal surge for a Category 3 hurricane has been charted in a gradient across Rockaway from 31’ to 6’ depending on the topography. The height of the storm surge across the Rockaways calls for a rethinking of protective strategies and current land use. Exposed to the Atlantic Ocean with the shallow Continental Shelf offshore, the creation of a series of interconnected barrier islands, coupled with a armored shoreline dune creation, would provide protection of the land mass for the foreseeable future. Sea gates are proposed at the narrowest channel openings to protect Rockaway Park.


Barrier Islands and Armored Open Space Extension

Strategizing Sea Level Rise and Storm ImpactsJoseph Emmanuel Ingoldsby, ASLA

The author, trained in art and landscape architecture, utilizes observation of nature and culture as a central focus of his art. The work involves research, scientific collaboration and examination, documentation, analysis and synthesis using art, science and technology for environmental advocacy. The focus of these works has been on the coastal landscape of New England, the imprint of humans on land and sea, and the impact of climate change and over fishing on the marine landscape and fisheries of New England. Current studies include the vanishing landscapes and endangered species, biodiversity and the changing roles of the science museum in an age of extinction. Publications: Sustainable Solutions for Biodiversity Loss on Cape Cod Sustainable Museums for the 21st Century, Green Sanctuaries at Mass Audubon, Museums etc Press, UK Vanishing Landscapes and Endangered Species, Science Exhibitions: Curation & Design, Museums etc Press, UK. 2010 Requiem for a Drowning Landscape, Leonardo 42-2-2009, MIT Press.Websites: www.josephemmanuelingoldsby.com & www.landscapemosaics.com

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Strategizing Sea Level Rise and Storm Impacts New York City Breezy Point, Queens, NY - Baltimore Sun In late October of 2012, Hurricane Sandy provided