Scientific Symposium Presentation Abstracts
September 19
Dr. Malcolm Bowman: Protecting Against Coastal Flooding in the New York Metropolitan Area and Long Island
The New York Metropolitan region is vulnerable to coastal flooding and large-scale damage to city infrastructure from hurricanes and nor’easters. Much of this region lies less than three meters above mean sea level; in total this includes an area of about 260 square kilometers. Within the region lies critical infrastructure such as hospitals, three major airports, high densities of commercial property and financial institutions, railroad and subway station entrances, highways, tunnels, waste water treatment facilities and over 750 combined sewer outfalls, all located at or near sea level.
Recent storms have already revealed the intrinsic potential for disaster in this region. For example, the nor’easter of December 1992 flooded the entrance of the Hoboken Path train station with seawater, short-circuiting the electric trains and city subways and shutting down the underground public transportation system for up to 10 days. The Brooklyn-Battery tunnel also encountered serious flooding as did the FDR Highway on Manhattan’s east side. Fortunately, no lives were lost, but there would have been fatalities if the sea had risen another 30 centimeters (about 1 foot). During this century, rising sea level will aggravate the effects of storm surges and wave damage along the Metropolitan New York, Long Island and northern New Jersey coasts, leading to more severe and more frequent flooding. Accelerated sea level rise due to abrupt climate change will hasten sea level rise and make infrastructure response and protection even more urgent.
In order to adequately protect Metropolitan New York for the foreseeable future (a time horizon of 150 years), the Stony Brook Storm Surge group is proposing the construction of four large moveable storm surge barriers across the main connections of New York Harbor with the Atlantic Ocean (Verrazano Narrows, upper East River, Perth Amboy, and Rockaway Inlet), which will need to be at least 15 meters (about 50 feet) in height, with associated seawalls stretching to higher ground.
