Coastal Flooding Mitigation Plan Under Development in New York City
New York City, like many shoreline regions, is facing the prospect of increased coastal flooding in the future that will likely impact the city’s residents as well as the operations of its local utility companies.
The city has roughly 520 miles of coastline, and thanks to climate change, experts predict that sea levels could rise by up to 21 inches by 2050 and by a whopping 6 feet by 2100. To its credit, the city is taking this threat seriously and is in the process of developing a coastal flooding mitigation plan.
Emerging Details on the NYC Coastal Flooding Mitigation Plan
The plan, called the “Fourth Regional Plan,” is being developed by the NYC Department of City Planning. The Department estimates that over 2 million people could be impacted by coastal flooding, and the areas within which these residents live will be the primary target of the plan.
As such, one element of the plan is to cease new development activities, as well as buyout the existing homes, in these flood-prone areas. Funds previously earmarked for development in these areas will be redirected toward the buyouts.
Another aspect of the plan directly impacts the city’s water and wastewater utilities. Experts predict that 40% of the local water treatment plants will eventually be at risk of contamination, so the plan is to create a redundant network of treatment plants. This would provide the flexibility needed to move to an alternate plant if the first plant gets contaminated or damaged by a storm. NYC will likely try and make the water utilities pay for this development.
Third, the city plans to move all infrastructure out of the 20k-acre Meadowlands area, which is predicted to completely flood in the coming decades, and allow it to become a national wetlands park that will expand as the area gets more and more flooded over time.
The fourth key element of the plan directly impacts the local electric utility plants, 60% of which are predicted to be at-risk of flooding in the future. The plan calls for elevating, upgrading, and even relocating power plants in the high-risk areas. It also suggests creating plant redundancy so that one plant can assume generation capacity for another one that gets compromised. As in the case of the water treatment plants, the utilities are probably going to be expected to foot the bill for these enhancements.
For full details on the plan, click here.
In the final analysis, permanent coastal flooding is coming, and NYC is wise to start preparing for this reality now. Electric and water utilities in the area will likely feel some financial pain from these initiatives, but as best I can tell, these expenditures are a necessary evil for emergency preparedness.
