Wild Urban Coastlines - Palmer

WILD URBAN COASTLINESHow can human and wildlife habitat co-exist in cities?

Roz PalmerCapstone, December 2013Alec Appelbaum and Jaime Stein, advisors

Wild Urban Coastlines | Roz Palmer, Dec. 2013, Pratt PSPD | 2

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ..................................................................................................... 3 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 4 Part 1: Co-existence ..................................................................................................... 6 Functioning ............................................................................................................................... 7 Co-exist: further evolution of the City ........................................................................ 10 Resilience ................................................................................................................................ 11 Part 2: Risk: Why should we care about our coastlines? .......................... 13 Coastal Risk .............................................................................................................................. 13 New York City / the Hudson-Raritan Estuary ........................................................... 16 Part 3: The Case for Natural Habitat vs. Seawalls ........................................ 19 Hard Infrastructure .............................................................................................................. 19 Soft Infrastructure ................................................................................................................. 20 Part 4: The Evolution of Urban ............................................................................. 23 1. NYCs long-term planning and green infrastructure ......................................... 232. Low Impact Development (LID) and habitat enhancements ..................... 233. Delaware Estuary Living Shorelines ........................................................................ 244. Revitalization and use of space for resiliency ...................................................... 265. Rethinking the City in large-scale redesign ........................................................... 28Part 5: Weber Court .................................................................................................. 33 Context ....................................................................................................................................... 33 The Citys plan for Southern Brooklyn ......................................................................... 36 Gans Studio ............................................................................................................................... 39 Part 6: Proposal and limitations .......................................................................... 41 Conclusion: Wild Urban Coastlines .................................................................... 45 Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 46 Appendices .................................................................................................................... 53


Executive Summary Though weve separated ourselves from natural ecosystems with dense built environments, New York City is the Hudson-Raritan Estuary -- our capacity to build on wetlands does not guarantee a capacity to overcome its natural cycles. This paper argues for a better integration of natural habitat (wetlands) with dense human habitat (cities), and a better transition from the land to the water. A conventional wetland cannot function in a dense urban environment, however, so I explore a shift in our current definitions of functioning estuary, how these environments can co-existent, and what a city will need to be in the future to allow this to happen. Based on the concept of ecosystem services, recent studies have revealed hard evidence that coastal habitats protect people and property from sea level rise and severe weather events. The paper reviews several of these studies and points out vulnerabilities specific to New York City. I make the case for implementing soft infrastructure as opposed to engineered infrastructure based on long-term costs and benefits, and conclude that hard infrastructure will crumble while soft infrastructure will grow. Implementation of soft infrastructure also accomplishes the goal of integrating natural and urban environments, and aids in adaptation to climate change. To ground these large-scale concepts in reality, the end of the paper presents a proposal for a site-specific living shoreline pilot project, which draws inspiration from a number of precedent studies. I cite PlaNYC, Low-Impact Development, the Delaware Estuary, strategies for post-industrial waterfront revitalization both in NYC and abroad, Rebuild by Design (HUD) and most importantly, the Vancouver Convention Center as guidance for the pilot project. The paper introduces the existing site, Weber Court in Southern Brooklyn, the Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliencys plans for the area around it, and Gans Studios proposals for neighborhood-wide resiliency as well as preliminary designs for elevating houses in the sunken courts of Sheepshead Bay. The stepped intertidal seawall that I propose will act as a compact living shoreline: it will grow natural habitat over time, adapting the Weber Court community to sea level rise and storm surge -- all as a natural shoreline would do. I argue that, in conjunction with regional interventions, the stepped seawall will show that a meticulously created coastal habitat can thrive in a dense center of human use and habitation, and that a small piece of land can be productive for many species on many scales. The intervention will also prove, ideally through the residents observations and the steady growth of biodiversity, that the integration of urban and natural environments is possible, and that a hard divide between land and water does not serve coastal species, including us.


Introduction: An evolved concept of what urban means can create more biodiverse, and

therefore more livable cities. The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy has been working for 25 years to make 1.3 miles of abandoned shoreline into the sustainable park we can all enjoy today.1 People are excited about the volleyball courts and the carousel, but theyre also excited about feeling like youre in the woods on pier six and that theres a place to put your feet in the water.2 Though weve separated ourselves from these natural habitats with dense built environments, New York City is the Hudson-Raritan Estuary -- our capacity to build over it does not guarantee the capacity to overcome its natural cycles (e.g. tides and storms). Many landscape architects and designers like Michael Van Valkenburgh, the architect of Brooklyn Bridge Park, are working to bring nondestructive land planning to urban landscapes.3 Theres six acres of living roof and 1,500 feet of marine habitat built into the Vancouver Convention Center, for example.4 Cities like Copenhagen tackled this issue so long ago that their center-city harbor is clean enough to swim in, and the fact that thousands of people do every summer indicates the demand for access to the water, not only for recreation but for subsistence and business uses as well.5 The naturalist E.O. Wilson uses the word biophilia to describe that innate affiliation people seek with other organisms, and especially with the living natural world. Studies (nevermind our own brains) tell us that humans like to live and work near a body of water.6 Especially along coastlines, which house both ecological and economic concentrations of productivity, we need to continually innovate ways to sustain a dense and highly diverse set of functions, and to re-incorporate the estuary back into the city. Organisms need spawning ground, the sea will claim its tidal plain, wildlife requires migration corridors, industry needs trade routes, and people need housing, recreation and beauty: there is a reason that most 1 Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklynbridgepark.org, accessed December 12, 2013, http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/about-us. 2 William S. Saunders, Michael Van Valkenburgh, Harvard Landscape Architecture Professor: A Profile,

Harvardmagazine.com, December 2013, http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/11/the-urban-landscaper. 3 Saunders, Michael Van Valkenburgh. 4 Environment, Vancouver Convention Centre, 2013, accessed December 9, 2013, http://www.vancouverconventioncentre.com/thefacilities/environment/. 5 See Copenhagen Climate Change Adaptation Plan for a summary of their work so far and future plans. 6 Edward O. Wilson, The Social Conquest of Earth (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2012): 272.


major cities were established on a waterfront.7 Coastal wildlife habitat is essential to this creation of biodiverse, livable cities, and can serve as an adaptation to sea level rise and increasingly intense storms due to climate change. Following a re-examination of our current definitions of nature as separate from urban, I will use precedent studies and a proposed pilot project for a communitys shoreline in Southern Brooklyn to outline ways in which human and natural coastal habitat can co-exist. Using solutions proposed in this paper, coastal urban hubs can strive to provide sustainable habitat for all species, with slight privilege to the humans already inhabiting the shore.

7 Beijing, Sao Paulo, Mexico City are considered the only major metropolises that did not grow from a waterfront; Rutger de Graaf, Inaugural Lecture BlueRevolution, Lecture, 2012, accessed September 30, 2013, http://www.slideshare.net/rutgerdegraaf/inaugural-lecture-bluerevolution-video.


Part 1, Co-existence: What does it mean for natural and human habitat to co-exist? In the industrial era, the sentiment that the city was an ugly, unhealthy place devoid of nature was understandable. Now, however, in many cities in the U.S., industry no longer dominates the majority of the coastline, and the industry still present is under strict regulations for air and water health.8 Though this does not mean that coastal neighborhoods are universally healthy, the inequitable placement of urban infrastructure and industry is receiving more attention than in the past.9 Reports such as Vision2020 from New York Citys waterfront division describe the need and plan for the complete transformation of the coastline in order that the defunct industrial perimeters can be opened to public use. But the ability to maintain human and other species habitats in the same place requires a new definition of what a functioning ecosystem is when in the context of an urban landscape. We therefore need a tailored definition of functioning, and an evolved definition of city -- one that takes into account the integration and possible mimicry of natural systems. Using New York City as a focus, our new definitions can inspire an alternative vision that opts for the transition zone, with islands, wetlands, and graded embankments, allowing the city to cooperate with the sea, rather than trying, fruitlessly, to banish it.10 To understand the coast as a transition as opposed to a boundary, it is important to understand New York Citys history as an estuary and what an estuary provides as a transitory zone. According to Eric W. Sanderson, lead ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society and founder of The Welikia Project, when they were intact marshes all over the island [Manhattan and other boroughs] buffered flooding, slowed rushing waters, recharged aquifers, and filled springs with water. Wetlands held soil on the island, slowing erosion...these wetlands were filled with animals...11 The intertidal zone that will be the focus of this paper serves all of the functions mentioned above, acting as a geomorphic transition between terrestrial and aquatic habitat, and as a buffer zone between wet and dry, water and land.12 8 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Pollution and the Clean Air Act, usepa.gov, August 2013, accessed November 11, 2013, http://www.epa.gov/air/caa/; National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. usepa.gov, March 2009, accessed November 11, 2013, http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/index.cfm. 9 Renewed Debate Over 91st St. Marine Waste Station, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, July 7, 2013, http://www.waterfrontalliance.org/waterwire/2013/07/07/renewed-debate-over-91st-st-marine-waste-station. 10 Guy Nordenson, Catherine Seavitt, and Adam Yarinsky, On the Water | Palisade Bay (Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2010): 11. 11 Eric W. Sanderson, Urban Legend: Discovering Manhattans Wetlands, National Wetlands Newsletter 27, no. 1 (February 2005), 1417. 12 Sydney Metropolitan Catchment Management Authority and Climate Change NSW 2009, Environmentally Friendly Seawalls: A Guide to Improving the Environmental Value of Seawalls and Seawall-lined Foreshores in Estuaries (Department of Environment and Climate Change NSW, June 2009), http://www.hornsby.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/41291/Environmentally-Friendly-Seawalls.pdf.


(Source: Department of Environment and Climate Change NSW)

Functioning To create the most inhabitable coast possible, the restoration and creation of natural coastal habitat along the perimeter of cities needs to be prioritized. But natural coastal habitat in cities cannot simply mimic preserved natural areas. A fully functioning estuary, for example, cannot co-exist with dense housing, which is why national parks and wilderness areas are protected as they are. But this shouldnt, and doesnt, disallow any natural areas from existing near human habitat. Community gardens do, green infrastructure does increasingly, bee-keeping and roof gardens are becoming popular, beaches certainly exist (albeit with deficient dunes); what does a wetland have to be to survive alongside humans? As defined most basically by the Environmental Protection Agency, wetlands are lands where saturation with water is the dominant factor determining the nature of soil development and the types of plant and animal communities living in the soil and on its surface13 And an estuary meets with, or contains, wetlands: an estuary is a partially enclosed body of water along the coast where freshwater from rivers and streams meets and mixes with saltwater from the ocean.14 13 Wetlands and Nature, usepa.gov, October 9, 2012, accessed September 23, 2013, http://water.epa.gov/type/wetlands/nature.cfm. 14 Wetlands and Nature, usepa.gov.


Much of New York Citys coastlines are wetlands that lie along the Hudson-Raritan Estuary, which at one time made the city a nexus of biological diversity.15 It is clear why NYC is no longer really a wetland, since humans have taken serious measures to define wet areas from dry ones. And since the ground in the city no longer becomes saturated with sea water regularly, a necessity for a wetland, saturation with water doesnt determine the soil, plant or animal communities living on the surface. Biodiversity can also be an indicator of functionality. According to the diversity-productivity hypothesis, NYC is also not a functioning ecosystem. In estuarine ecosystems, where many species propagate, the richness of diversity is especially high, and therefore so too is the production of organic matter (see Appendix D for a diagram of estuarine ecology). The diversity-productivity hypothesis uses organic production as an indicator of functionality: estuarine environments are among the most productive on earth, creating more organic matter each year than comparably-sized areas of forest, grassland, or agricultural land.16 If production drops off, it is a sign that the number of species present and their biodiversity are waning and that the functions fulfilled by these species have ceased.17 The functions created by biodiversity and its correlated production of organic matter has major effects on human populations. According to the National Research Council, wetland functions can include water-quality improvement; water retention, which helps to ameliorate flood peaks and desynchronizes high flows in streams and rivers; groundwater recharge; shoreline stabilization; and provision of a unique environment, part aquatic and part terrestrial, that supports a diversity of plants and animals, including a majority of the nation's rare and endangered species.18 Many functions are defined only in relation to human activity and use, detracting from the nature of an ecosystem, which is to persist regardless of human benefit. But in completely human (monetary) terms, a functioning estuary produces services that would otherwise cost $800-9000 per acre.19 In New York, though a direct monetary exchange hasnt been calculated for a particular estuarine service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calculated one for its watershed management: as long as the city agreed to set aside $300 million over the next 10 years to acquire land and restrain upstate development that causes runoff and pollution, the agency would exempt New York from having to build an $8 billion filtration plant.20 This gives us a good idea of what a functioning ecosystem is 15 Sanderson, Urban Legend, 1417. 16 Basic Information About Estuaries, usepa.gov, accessed September 9, 2013, http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/nep/about.cfm. 17 Gretchen C. Daily, ed., Natures Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems (Washington D.C.: Island Press, 1997): 94. 18 National Research Council, Compensating for Wetland Losses Under the Clean Water Act, Washington D.C.: National Academy Press, 2001. 19 Gretchen C. Daily, Natures Services, 186. 20 Anthony DePalma, Citys Catskill Water Gets 10-Year Approval, NYTimes.com, April 13, 2007, accessed December 12, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/nyregion/13water.html?_r=0.


worth to the city, and what we are simply incapable of doing without vast infrastructural investments. The bright side is that we can make those vast investments in something that is naturally resilient (defined below) and self-sustaining investments that will appreciate over time, rather than depreciate. Taking all of these definitions into account, a functioning wetland is essentially one that maintains itself when undisturbed by human activity. Even more basically, a functioning wetland is one that has not been filled for development. But these are the existing definitions, and the functionality for an urban wetland will have to be different. This paper will rely mostly on the diversity-productivity hypothesis for the following discussion: the goal for restoring or creating coastal urban wetlands will be to encourage the highest possible amount of biodiversity. As in watershed management, which over the years has become increasingly about ecosystem management (in the form of plantings) to stabilize rivers and streams and less about engineering reservoir infrastructure, there must be a target standard for restoration of natural waterfronts. Benchmarks for healthy, functioning ecosystems should be defined in terms of stability. Though the metric for stability will vary over time and must be based on long-term monitoring, a stable coastal ecosystem will 1) maintain itself (have reduced long-term maintenance costs21) and withstand tides, storms, and surges the way an average natural wetland does, 2) house a consistent, high register of biodiversity that effectively serves, on a small scale, the same purposes as an undisturbed wetland 3) not undergo radical or sudden changes over time such as erosion.22

21 City Of New York, Department of City Planning, Vision2020: New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan (City of New York, Waterfront Division, March 2011), http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/cwp/index.shtml, 110. 22 Karen A. Duhring et al., Evaluation of Living Shoreline Techniques, In Living Shorelines Summit Williamsburg, VA, 2006: 35.


The city began restoration projects to improve existing wetland stability long before Sandy hit, which are outlined in the NYC waterfront divisions Vision2020. In order to accomplish a viable yet visionary comprehensive plan for the coastline, the department called out the need identify resources to promote scientific research and micro- and macro-scale modeling of flood and storm surge risks and potential interventions to inform decisions about coastal management.23 The report also mentions the promotion of pilot projects to test potential strategies and evaluate their effectiveness in providing coastal protection, while highlighting an equal need to monitor the health of aquatic life at such implementation sites. The Weber Court pilot project proposed at the end of this paper fulfills these goals. One test site that may be useful for Vision2020s inventory of potential interventions is the Delaware River delta. In a Williamsburg, Virginia panel on the Evaluation of Living Shorelines, panelists Rochelle D. Seitz and Amanda S. Lawless presented the diversity and number of organisms at several sites in the mid-atlantic. Their findings made a clear case for the ability of living shorelines to provide habitat for a wider variety and number of species than a bulkhead, as shown in the graph to the right.

Co-exist: further evolution of the City In order for a wetland to function in a dense urban environment, the current definition of urban will need to change. It is not possible for humans to live in a monocultural (single-species) environment, not only in terms of the health of the biosphere, but in terms of human health as well. A discussion of the impacts of the natural environment on human health will not be discussed in this paper, as it is a discipline of its own. However, the following discussion is based on an assumption that humans are biophilic: they need to live in a biodiverse environment in order to survive. Experts on biophilia and biomimicry like E.O. Wilson, Natalie Jeremijenko and Dayna Baumeister have made the case that, no 23 City of New York, Department of City Planning, Vision2020, 112.


matter how clever our technological innovations, humans need the natural world to survive and we therefore need to revisit our relationship with it.24 The ideal form of coexistence for any two species is a mutualistic symbiotic relationship, in which both species benefit from and rely on each others existence. Cities, if considered as an organism, are presently parasitic in that they receive benefit from other species by doing harm to them: cities extract all required resources from the surrounding area [natural environment] and after using them, discharge the pollutants to this area.25 If the city loses its host, or its resources, it cant survive, yet we continue to deplete those resources as if we can. What we need now is a more concrete vision...of what a world with wetlands is like...we need to [show]...that a country with wetlands can be wealthy, productive and full of life.26 Not only is a new idea about our role in the environment and our vision of a city evolving, but our built environment is starting to reflect it, too. Cities like Vancouver, B.C. in Canada, due to its position on a peninsula and rapid population growth, has had to be very diligent about using space wisely. It has done so through zoning that promotes highly diversified multi-use buildings in the downtown area. The best example of this creative use of space is the Vancouver Convention Center that was built for the 2010 Olympics. According to the architects LMN, the building triples the total square footage of the public realm on the waterfront.27 Though co-existence will (and does) require the creation of public space, these examples in multi-use apply to every square foot of urban waterfronts whether private or public. Co-existence may translate for New York City into more residentially-focused zoning for the waterfront, or more public space instead of commercial use. Resilience Because many climate change adaptation plans have been released recently, the idea of resiliency is very popular. So what does it mean? And how can it help us understand why natural coastal habitat as 24 Natalie Jeremijenko: Environment Design, Seedmagazine.com, accessed December 13, 2013, http://seedmagazine.com/designseries/natalie-jeremijenko.html; Design Night: Mother Nature - Biomimicry with Dr. Dayna Baumeister, Vimeo.com, February 18, 2013, accessed December 13, 2013, http://vimeo.com/59915360. 25 Rutger Ewout De Graaf, Innovations in Urban Water Management to Reduce the Vulnerability of Cities. Technische Universiteit Delft, 2009. http://www.deltasync.nl/reports/De_Graaf_thesis.pdf. 26 Sanderson, Urban Legend, 1417. 27 Stephanie Lewis and Kristin Dispenza, Case Study: Vancouver Convention Centre, Buildipedia.com, April 2, 2010, accessed October 8, 2013, http://buildipedia.com/aec-pros/featured-architecture/case-study-vancouver-convention-centre?print=1&tmpl=component


sea-buffer-zone is so important? The definition of resilience, as defined by the Stockholm Resilience Centre is the self-organizing capacity or ability of a system or natural entity to remain stable as what it is and how it performs.28 With this definition, it is clear how natural systems can improve the resiliency of a city: unlike ecosystems, seawalls and other engineered structures do not self-organize. As they crumble, they compromise the resilience of the urban organism as a whole. By maintaining their internal resiliency, estuaries improve upon the resilience of the urban organism. The more established an ecosystem, the more biodiverse it is, and the more diverse, the more robust it is. And a more robust ecosystem is a more robust flood barrier. The definitions of resilience and functioning create the argument for the re-integration of natural coastal habitat into dense human ones. The Stockholm Resilience Centre calls resilience Persistence, Adaptability and Transformability.29 So for New York City to be resilient, it must allow natural habitat to persist in order to adapt to sea level rise by transforming its coastline. The idea in the Netherlands -- a country that has successfully survived centuries of flooding -- is to live with nature, rather than fight (what will inevitably be, they have come to realize) a losing battle. Self-organization must not only include preventative as opposed to reactive measures, but also interdisciplinary solutions to create a variety of uses at all times, not just in disaster. The Dutch have implemented coastal protections that improve public life, public space and the landscape at a fraction of the billions American taxpayers pay out for repairing hurricane damage.30 Using these definitions of traditional wetlands, functionality, co-existence, and resilience, our measurement of the functionality of an urban coastal wildlife habitat will be that it: 1) is visibly more biodiverse than man-made coastlines, 2) produces increasing amounts of organic matter over time until comparable to an undisturbed wetland system,31 3) and maintains stability over time, defined as a steady retention or growth of mass over time without sudden changes or depletion. 28 Brian Walker, The Best Explanation to Resilience (Stockholm Resilience Centre n.d.), accessed October 11, 2013, http://www.stockholmresilience.org/21/research/what-is-resilience.html. 29 Carl Folke, What Is Resilience? (Stockholm Resilience Centre, n.d.) accessed October 8, 2013. 30 Michael Kimmelman, Flood Control in the Netherlands Now Allows Seawater In, NYTimes.com, February 13, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/arts/design/flood-control-in-the-netherlands-now-allows-sea-water-in.html?adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1360772516-PLHrtEyb6t/PD+qmDykWsQ&_r=0. 31 This goal has been proven achievable in the Chesapeake Bay with the same species of grass that populates the Hudson-Raritan estuary: Above-ground biomass in created Spartina alterniflora marshes on the Atlantic Coast...quickly reaches parity with natural marshes if basic conditions for marsh establishment and survival are employed; G.A. Matthews and T.J. Minello, Technology and Success in Restoration, Creation, and Enhancement of Spartina alterniflora marshes in the United States: Volume 1 Executive Summary and Annotated Bibliography, (U.S. Department of Commerce: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Coastal Ocean Office, 1994): 36.


Part 2, Risk: Why should we care about our coastlines?

As the ocean swells, city-dwellers and planners will need to predict and manage where that water will go.32 Most government leaders have recognized the importance of rebuilding better and focusing on coastal resilience strategies for their cities, regions and countries. Increasingly, academics, engineers and planners are focusing on the protection that natural habitat provides in addition to reporting on sea level rise, temperature increase, air and water pollution and their effects on human health. The coastline isnt simply an amenity or a vulnerability: it is where adaptation can make the most impact for our cities.

Coastal Risk The latest report by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), titled Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis,33 states with unprecedented certainty that humans are the dominant cause of climate change, and predicts that sea levels will be 12-29 inches higher [in 2050] than they are today.34 This is not relevant here in its disclosure of what causes climate change, but that scientists rank its presence with the highest scientific certainty possible. In order to protect our most densely populated and vulnerable communities, the conversation must be about how to deal with the 12 to 29 additional inches of water at our edges, not whether or why the vulnerability exists. Over the past 200 years, the United States has lost about 50% of its wetlands.35 Like every other ecosystem, wetlands provide us with what some call ecosystem services: forests produce oxygen to breathe, bees pollinate our plants and food, and wetlands provide a buffer from storm surge and flooding (along with other services mentioned above).36 Based on these services, recent studies have revealed hard evidence that coastal habitats shield people and property from sea-level rise and storms, according to one produced by The Natural Capital Project, the Nature Conservancy and Stanford University scientists. 32 For example, recent storms have claimed more square footage of our coastlines than we were prepared for: Sandy in Oct. 2012 and Haiyan in Nov. 2013; Aland Duke, Superstorm Sandy Breaks Records, CNN.com, October 31, 2012, accessed November 18, 2013, http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/30/us/sandy-records/; The Economist, Typhoon Haiyan and the Philippines: Stress Test, Economist.com, November 16, 2013, accessed November 16, http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21589883-responding-disaster-essential-so-preparing-next-stress-test. 33 IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis, Ipcc.ch, accessed October 21, 2013, http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/#.UmVALSQZxcx. 34 Matt McGrath, IPCC Climate Report: Humans Dominant Cause of Warming, BBC News - Science & Environment, September 27, 2013, accessed October 15, 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24292615. 35 Thomas E. Dahl, Wetland Losses in the United States, 1780s1980s, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/othrdata/wetloss/wetloss.htm. 36 See Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems, Gretchen C. Daily, ed. for a more comprehensive discussion of the services that ecosystems provide.


The Natural Capital Projects Coastal Hazard Index for the United States: The graph shows population in thousands affected in states With [coastal] habitats in black and Without habitat in white. (Source: Arkema, Coastal habitats shield people and property from sea-level rise and storms) The above diagram is part of that report, published in Nature Climate Change this year, which calculated a hazard index for every 1km2 of the United States coastline using five sea-level-rise scenarios, and models of each area with and without intact reefs and coastal vegetation. The authors synthesized these scenarios with data on the vulnerability of communities (the percentage of the population that is poor or elderly) and residential property value to deliver the first national map of risk reduction owing to natural coastal habitats. The report concluded that coastal habitats defend the greatest number of people and total property value in Florida, New York and California, meaning that these states stand to benefit most by maintaining, restoring and creating coastal habitat as an adaptation to sea level rise and storms.37 In New York City alone, yet another indicator of vulnerability is the fact of 45% of the New York City Housing Authority's properties being in FEMAs 100-year flood zone. This means that almost half of the 37 Katie K. Arkema et al., Coastal Habitats Shield People and Property from Sea-level Rise and Storms, Nature

Climate Change 3 (2013): 913-914.


citys publicly-subsidized homes are situated in the most flood-prone areas, which is a vulnerability not only of the citys people but also of its investments.38 Another report, which assesses future risk specific to the south shore of Long Island, concludes that modest and probable sea level rise (.5 m by 2080) vastly increases the numbers of people (47% increase) and property loss (73% increase) impacted by storm surge.39 The paper proposes a re-invention that includes more species in those communities, namely grasses, fish, birds and microorganisms that allow a healthy ecosystem to naturally defend inlands from flooding. Their recommendations align with those of most urban ecologists, climatologists, and conservationists. Peter Kereiva, the Nature Conservancys chief scientist and head author of the Natural Capital Projects report, discourages dependence on hard or engineered infrastructure, asserting that hardening our shorelines with seawalls and other costly engineering shouldnt be the default solution...they might be appropriate in some situations. But now we have data on those places and opportunities where nature contributes the most to protecting our coastal communities and giving us all the other benefits it can provide, such as recreation, fish nurseries, water filtration and erosion control.40 In New York City, PlaNYC reports and Vision2020 support long-term, diversified and natural solutions for coastlines.41 These reports encourage the restoration of natural coastal habitat in general, but draw a clear conclusion for New York in particular. The authors of these reports and many others are quick to point out that it is no coincidence that many of the most vulnerable places are within historic flood plains. New York City is the Hudson-Raritan Estuary. Though we have filled and now live and work on much of that estuary, it remains an estuary, which is why its flood plains continue to flood. The difficulty in restoring this estuary, as the report encourages, is that it requires us to re-create, not just restore, wetlands. And this is a difficult task, as it is one with little history.

38 Judd Schechtman, J.D., M.U.P., and Michael Brady, Cost-Efficient Climate Adaptation in the North Atlantic (CEANA), September 2013, http://seagrant.uconn.edu/CEANA/CEANAFull.pdf, 125. 39 Christine C. Shepard et al., Assessing Future Risk: Quantifying the Effects of Sea Level Rise on Storm Surge Risk for the Southern Shores of Long Island, New York, Natural Hazards 60 (December 4, 2011): 727745. 40 Bob Lalasz, New Study: Coastal Nature Reduces U.S. Risk from Storms, Cool Green Science, July 15, 2013, accessed December 9, 2013, http://blog.nature.org/science/2013/07/15/new-study-coastal-nature-reduce-risk-storm-united-states/?s_intc=tab3p1. 41 City of New York, Department of City Planning, Vision2020.


New York City / the Hudson-Raritan Estuary As mentioned above, New York City was once one of the great biodiversity hotspots of the planet.42 As newcomers developed, urbanized, and killed off the peninsula and islands43 resources for trade and subsistence, the estuary slowly became the culturally diverse metropolis that we know today. Though humans use of the land and water redefined the coastline, as shown to the right, it did not significantly change the citys geomorphology or position in a delta.44 The storms that we have experienced in the recent past are not new to the landscape, but our technologies, strategies and climatology have evolved, changing our relationship with vulnerability, and, with further adaptation, with the land and water as well.45 To be specific, New York City is a system of bays and tidal rivers where the Hudson, Hackensack, Passaic, Rahway, and Raritan rivers meet the Atlantic Ocean.46 New York is also home to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, which is the countrys largest urban wildlife refuge (part of Gateway National Recreation Area).47 42 In his book The Big Oyster, Mark Kurlansky has compiled a smattering of voyagers reactions to the bounty that was New York Harbor and its surrounding land masses from the 1400-1600s; Mark Kurlansky, The Big Oyster, (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006). 43 Though we arent made to think about it much, two of NYCs boroughs are islands, two are on the end of a larger island, and one is a peninsula. 44 Geomorphology is the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them; Geomorphology, Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, October 15, 2013, accessed October 17, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomorphology. 45 NYC Hazards: NYC Hurricane History, NYC Office of Emergency Management, accessed October 17, 2013, http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/hazards/storms_hurricanehistory.shtml. 46 Hudson-Raritan Estuary, National Geographic Education, accessed September 10, 2013, http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/maps/hudson-raritan-estuary/?ar_a=1.


According to the Welikia Project and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which are building a database and picture of New York Citys historic ecologic state, a number of diverse ecosystems once existed where NYC is today.48 Because the city occurs at a profound biological crossroads...and on the Atlantic flyway for migratory birds the task of reintroducing this biodiversity will be difficult. But it also stands to be unimaginably fruitful, if done strategically.49 Being in a delta, the city must consider both temporary inundation from higher sea levels and damage from storm surges. The 2011 Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, Vision2020, wisely states that to simply bulkhead the entire waterfront would not adequately address risks, would become increasingly costly, and would have negative ecological consequences for our waterways and coastal areas. To abandon dense coastal neighborhoods would have enormous costs as well.50 Restoration of existing wetlands is certainly being addressed in places like Jamaica Bay in New York, where an estimated 1,400 acres of tidal salt marsh have been lost since 1924. The marsh islands of Elders East, Elders West, Yellow Bar Hassock, Black Wall and Rulers Bar have had varying amounts of their acreage restored using material from harbor dredging projects as fill, and, in the case of Elders East, planting by hand more than 700,000 plants grown from local seed stock by the National Resources Conservation Service, and 200,000 plants on Elders West. This method was used to restore approximately 40 acres on each of the islands, and other projects under the New York/New Jersey Harbor-Jamaica Bay Multi-Project Initiative created an additional 87 acres of marsh island habitat in Jamaica Bay.51 Most of the restoration projects fared well through Superstorm Sandy, except an eelgrass pilot project, and potentially suitable habitat for the piping plover actually increased.52 In Jamaica Bay, the restoration of marshlands was fairly straightforward in that it could mimic what remained. But developed, densely inhabited areas will require more imagination for how to recompose

47 Jamaica Bay Project, New York City Audubon, accessed October 17, 2013, http://nycaudubon.org/jamaica-bay-project. 48 Ecosystems of the Hudson-Raritan included near-shore eelgrass beds, high and low salt marshes and ponds, herbaceous freshwater marshes, shrub swamps, red maple swamps, and Atlantic cedar bogs; Sanderson, Urban Legend, 1417. 49 Sanderson, Urban Legend, 1417. 50 City of New York, Department of City Planning, Vision2020, 106-107. 51 Jamaica Bay - Salt Marsh Islands, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: New York District, accessed November 9, 2013. http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/ProjectsinNewYork/EldersPointJamaicaBaySaltMarshIslands.aspx. 52 Jamaica Bay Task Force Meeting, New York City Audubon, February 4, 2013, http://www.nycaudubon.org/wordpress/tag/jamaicabay/.


the natural systems that were intact decades or centuries ago; the history of landfilling for development in New York53 and other cities is long, and continues to this day.54 Though the city has restored 146 acres of wetlands since 2002,55 we need to direct our focus now to the integration of those natural ecosystems with the built environment. Green infrastructure is a growing series of natural interventions that deal with storm water overflows. It serves as an excellent example of effective integration of mini-wetlands on streets, roofs, parkland to increase infiltration of rainwater into the ground before it runs into the sewer system.56 Green infrastructure could be even more effective, though, if it was included in development regulation and permits, just as coastal habitat would. Due to the nature of the infrastructure, which is that it needs to be site-specific, it is difficult to normalize its implementation, and therefore to regulate. The same problem might arise with coastal habitat: it is so important for it to be site-specific that it will be hard to enforce its inclusion in city-wide coastal planning. More data is needed to foresee what kind of green infrastructure (a term that can include coastal interventions) is required where.

53 For example, Freshkills Park on the West shore of Staten Island was the largest landfill in the world until 2001, and before that it was an extensive wetland system of streams and coastal marshes. See also historic plans to fill the marshy and unproductive Jamaica Bay entirely: Appendix E. 54 See Mayor Bloombergs Seaport City, a plan to mimic Battery Park City on the East side of Manhattan. Nettler, Jonathan. NYC Pushes Ahead With Plans for New Neighborhood Built on Landfill. Planetizen: The Urban Planning, Design, and Development Network, August 1, 2013. http://www.planetizen.com/node/64423. 55 PlaNYC, New York City Wetlands Strategy (City of New York, May 2012), http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/downloads/pdf/nyc_wetlands_strategy.pdf, 5. 56 PlaNYC, NYC Green Infrastructure Plan (City of New York, Mayors Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, n.d.), http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/green_infrastructure/NYCGreenInfrastructurePlan_LowRes.pdf.


Part 3, The Case for Natural Habitat vs. Seawalls: what can cities gain from using green,

soft or natural infrastructure as opposed to grey, hard or engineered infrastructure? Increasingly, decision-makers are looking for versatile solutions to address a host of problems facing cities. Recognizing that restored or constructed wetlands, beaches, barrier islands and reefs can function as dynamic storm barriers that both protect and serve ecological functions, the city incorporated Vision2020s forwarding-thinking coastal plans into the post-Sandy publication from the Special Initiative on Rebuilding and Resiliency (SIRR), A Stronger More Resilient New York.57 The city is also collaborating with proponents of natural coastal habitat in the Army Corps of Engineers, which is the entity that builds most of the large-scale flood mitigation structures for the country. Peter Weppler, the Coastal Ecosystem Section Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers is a strong advocate of what the Corps calls nature based infrastructure (NBI) as a better alternative to grey infrastructure.58 Weppler says that the Corps has sought to mimic natural barriers where possible, as they are well aware of the many benefits of natural coastal habitat.59

Hard Infrastructure More data is needed about the magnitude and long-term monetary costs and benefits of soft infrastructure in order to make statistical conclusions about its implementation. Data is also essential for creating standards for soft infrastructure success benchmarks. However, powerful evidence supports using soft infrastructure as compliment or replacement of hard infrastructure. As shown in the diagram above, seawalls not only degrade over time but also weaken the ground beneath them. Once a seawalls foundations are eroded to a certain point the wall itself becomes loose and can cause damage to nearby buildings, as well: waves can turn pieces of seawall into dangerous 57 City of New York, Department of City Planning, Vision2020, 110. 58 Public Works Technical Bulletin 200-1-21: Applicability of Constructed Wetlands for Army Installations, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, June 23, 2003, http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/ARMYCOE/PWTB/pwtb_200_1_21.pdf. 59 Peter Weppler, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, presented at the Coastal Wetland Recovery Workshop, Federal Plaza, New York City, October 3, 2013.


projectiles during a surge. If the seawall does not become a liability and only crumbles in several places, it serves to funnel water onto property and prevent it from flowing back out.60 In the New York community of Seagate on the Western tip of Coney Island, retaining walls (a synonym for seawalls) have caused the beach to erode almost to disappearance. Scouring has loosened those walls and could put nearby properties and their inhabitants at risk in the future. Walls in this state require timely repair in order to prevent smaller storms from causing severe damage.

Sea Gate and its disappearing beach (Photo credit: author, September 2013)

Soft Infrastructure In contrast to the degradation that all hard infrastructure undergoes, the living shoreline depicted below has actually multiplied in its usefulness to the property it is meant to protect. With the installation of small amounts of coir material (the rough straw-like stuff between a coconut shell and its fruity inside) this shoreline grew a flood-mitigation structure in a year, and remained seemingly untouched after two large storms.

Time series at the Marina in NJ Heislerville Fish & Wildlife Management Area (left to right), 1) April 2010: pre-installation, 2) May 2010: Coir materials installed, but prior to planting, 3) June 2011: One year later plants established, 4) September 2011: Treatment still in place after Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Ike. (Source: Partnership for the Delaware Estuary) 60 Don Barber, Kevin DuBois, and Gordon Labedz, Seawalls Mean Death to the Beach, Bryn Mawr Department of

Geology, accessed November 15, 2013, http://www.brynmawr.edu/geology/geomorph/seawalls.html.


As Peter Kareiva, the chief Nature Conservancy ecologist, puts it: natural barriers are cheaper and they replenish themselves. The Natural Capital Project report on coastal risk also provides the data necessary to make sound arguments for the targeted investment of natural barriers.61 A simple diagram of the life cycle of hard infrastructure versus living shorelines is shown below.

The life cycle of hard coastal infrastructure vs. soft coastal infrastructure (Source: author; photo credits: bangordailynews.com, Tony Hanson, wickedlocal.com, AP Construction, Inc., cityphile.com, Craig Baxter) Not only do growing habitats naturally last longer (if allowed to) than seawalls, but with increased wear and tear on waterfront infrastructure due to higher sea levels and more intense storms, scouring will require more frequent maintenance and replacement of bulkheads, seawalls, and stabilized shorelines. In short, hard infrastructure will crumble while soft infrastructure will grow. This causes the price of maintenance for the former to increase over time while the latter decreases as it grows stronger and more resilient.62 On a long-term basis, natural barriers will do better to protect us with less maintenance costs and labor. It follows that a more natural transition from the land to the water is more sustainable and less 61 Lalasz, New Study: Coastal Nature Reduces U.S. Risk from Storms. 62 City of New York, Department of City Planning, Vision2020, 110.


cost and energy intensive for cities to implement. Scientists studying the implementation of living shorelines estimate that for every dollar spent to construct [living shorelines], as much as $1.75 is returned to the economy in the form of improvements to resources, including submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), fish, benthic organisms, shellfish, waterfowl, and wetland habitat.63 The integration of living shorelines into urban environments also puts a city on a trajectory of less work, less maintenance, and less spending in our adaptation to climate change.

63Duhring, Evaluation of Living Shoreline Techniques, 36.


Part 4, The Evolution of Urban: 5 ways to rethink the intersection of natural and built

environments Though mimicry of natural systems is a good concept to start out with, integrating them into existing urban infrastructure and land use is complicated. Without including nature in our concept of what is urban, and without political will and support for experimentation of new design ideas, the city cant become biodiverse. We have witnessed the fact that natural wetlands cannot survive while being used as a city. But by drawing inspiration from cities and design firms that have attempted a new type of integration, we can produce many options for New York Citys coast. In the following section those most applicable to the Southern Brooklyn pilot project will be explored.

1. NYCs long-term planning and green infrastructure Long before Superstorm Sandy hit, New York set goals to improve the citys sustainability index. The Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability was interested in finding innovative ways to welcome 1 million more residents by 2030 while enhancing the urban experience, accessibility of the 520 miles of coastline, cleanliness of land and waterways, and about fifteen other categories of improvement.64 Among its many areas of concentration, the OLTPS tackled an NYC Green Infrastructure Plan: A Sustainability Strategy for Clean Waterways. The one of the plans key components is to control runoff from 10% of the citys impervious (paved) surfaces using green infrastructure. It also focuses on the citys overall water quality, and will be experimenting with where to site soft infrastructure for it to be most effective.65 The City has continued to release updated reports about the progress of achieving a more livable, sustainable city, and updates other inter-departmental initiatives to green NYCs built structures regularly.

2. Low Impact Development (LID) and habitat enhancements According to meteorologists estimates, 2.7 miles of wetland is needed to attenuate one foot of storm surge, and where that kind of mileage is not available due to housing density, maritime pathways, or established infrastructure (which is how most of a developed citys coastline is), any barrier 64 PlaNYC. PlaNYC 2030: A Greener Greater New York, Introduction (City of New York, 2007), http://nytelecom.vo.llnwd.net/o15/agencies/planyc2030/pdf/planyc_2011_intro.pdf. 65 PlaNYC, NYC Green Infrastructure Plan (City of New York, n.d.), http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/green_infrastructure/NYCGreenInfrastructurePlan_LowRes.pdf, 4, 14.


implemented should serve many functions simultaneously.66 Scientists in the Northwest of the U.S. are experimenting with ways to incorporate habitat and other functions where there is little undeveloped space on the coast. The city of Seattle (amongst many) has decided to use natural phenomena of filtration to manage stormwater along their coastline. The city calls LID a land use management strategy. They use the term pre-disturbance to indicate a wetlands maximum capacity to function in terms of the hydrologic processes of infiltration, filtration, storage, evaporation and transpiration. Instead of intensively developing coastlines and floodplains and using expensive grey infrastructure to meet the developments needs, the city emphasizes conservation, use of on-site natural features, site planning and distributed, as opposed to centralized, wastewater management practices.67 In conjunction with LID, ecologic institutions in the Northwest and elsewhere are testing the capabilities of habitat enhancement. When development on the water is unavoidable or immovable and wetland restoration is impractical, applying physical and biological characteristics to developments can promote fish and wildlife habitat. The studies conducted at the conventional seawall in downtown Seattle suggest that added complexity and surface area could improve ecological functions of extensively altered urban shorelines -- which basically means: build anything but a completely smooth concrete wall. Enhancement proves that even where there needs to be a wall, it can be an ecologically productive one.68

3. Delaware Estuary Living Shorelines The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary has implemented a pilot study, the Delaware Estuary Living Shoreline Initiative (DELSI), to determine best practices for erosion control by mollusks. The DELSI tactic uses native wetland plants, natural structures, and intertidal shellfish to trap sediment and absorb waves, and the Partnership deployed mats in the Maurice River, and coconut-fiber logs in 2008 (depicted in the Time lapse of the Marina in NJ Heislerville Fish & Wildlife Management Area above). DELS is also experimenting with bagged oysters and coated wooden stakes to determine which method is best for marsh plants or has the greatest impact on erosion.69 66 Jeffrey Masters, PhD., Storm Surge Reduction by Wetlands, Weather Underground, 2013, accessed October 8, 2013, http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/surge_wetlands.asp. 67 City of Seattle, Low Impact Development | Seattle Public Utilities, Seattle.gov, accessed October 18, 2013, http://www.seattle.gov/util/MyServices/DrainageSewer/Projects/GreenStormwaterInfrastructure/LowImpactDevelopment/index.htm. 68 Maureen Goff, Evaluating Habitat Enhancements of an Urban Intertidal Seawall: Ecological Responses and Management Implications, University of Washington, 2010, http://weber.s.uw.edu/research/publications/ms_phd/Goff_M_MS_Su10.pdf, 3. 69 Living Shorelines - DELSI Tactic, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, 2013, accessed November 8, 2013, http://delawareestuary.org/node/195.


Living shorelines also physically represent the ideology of integrating land with water and urban with wild. As depicted to the right, the implementation of a flush wall obstructs the life that can only exist in that transitory, intertidal zone. Without that transition, human populations situated at the hard line suffer, as the zone needed to protect them has been degraded. As urbanization accelerates and more than half the world lives in cities,70 every piece of developed land must be multi-purpose, which means that flood mitigation, energy production, water remediation, biodiversity propagation, and human habitation and recreation must co-exist in our planning and design. As in the practice of permaculture, an optimally diverse use of land allows all species to maintain a balanced environment and perform the most functions in the smallest space.

70 Global Health Observatory | Urban Population Growth, Who.int, 2013, accessed December 13, 2013, http://www.who.int/gho/urban_health/situation_trends/urban_population_growth_text/en/. 70


4. Revitalization and use of space for resiliency

Starr Whitehouse Architects Countless designs for resiliency are being churned out daily (especially in this crucial period in New York City) by scientists, engineers, artists, activists, community groups, design firms...everyone. Design the Edge: Hallets Cove and Jersey City Waterfront Park / Paulus Hook, is one such design, on a comparable scale (~100 feet of shoreline) to the Weber Court pilot project. The goal of Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners Halletts Cove proposal is to design resilient space that integrates habitat restoration with community-desired amenities. This kind of language is reflected in most design submissions as municipalities are seeking holistic and interdisciplinary solutions for every urban site.

Hallets Cove Rendering (Source: Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners)


NYC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR): Freshkills Park On a much larger scale, New York City is currently converting what was the largest landfill in the world into Freshkills Park. Before its establishment as a dump in 1948, the western coast of Staten Island was tidal creeks and coastal marshes. This enormous park project is revitalizing 2,200 acres of NYCs land and will contribute to energy demands (through the decomposing garbages methane emissions over the next 30 years), public recreation space on land and water for an ever-increasing demand, and the restoration of a crucial tidal marshs functions for the protection and filtration of the coast.71

Rendering of Freshkills Park. (Source: NYC Department of Parks and Recreation)

Port of Rotterdam Authority: Maasvlatke 2 In the Maasvlakte port-industrial zone in Rotterdam, the city and shipping industry are coordinating to ensure that the expansion of the port increases the resiliency of the region. Though this project displaces wetland and compensates elsewhere, the developers report a determination to create space for both business and nature so that the quality of life in the whole region improves in net terms. The compensatory projects for replacing degraded wetlands over-compensate in habitat area, create foredunes to close up weak links in the coastline, and create dunes for flood protection. The municipality and industry have promised to assess what impacts the movement of this ecosystem has on the seabed, wildlife and human settlement in the area, as part of their sustainable approach to expand the citys economic import while keeping other species in mind.72 71 Freshkills Park: NYC Parks, accessed September 23, 2013, http://www.nycgovparks.org/park-features/freshkills-park/about-the-site. 72 Hull & Humber City Region Observatory, Department of Geography, Working Paper 2: Port of Rotterdam, Sustainable Estuary Management: Reconciling Development and Conservation Pressures in European Port-estuary Spaces, (Rotterdam: University of Hull, May 2008) http://www.hull.ac.uk/hhcro/pdf/Rotterdam.pdf.


Unfortunately, as of the December 2011 Port Vision 2030 report, the Port has not set numerical goals for the biodiversity or number of species found in the area, though they note that the area is home to a surprising variety of wildlife. The focus thus far has been on reducing the Ports industrial emissions, which have been cut by more than half since the 1990s, and sustainable energy use. However, the report notes that, aside from compliance with regulations such as the Flora and Fauna Act, the Maasvlatke 2 also has a code of conduct that makes extra demands on any company using the port. Additionally, an annual survey is made of all species living in the area, clarifying which species need to be taken into consideration at the various locations.73

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.: Brooklyn Bridge Park Though Brooklyns coast is home to many Significant Maritime Industrial Areas,74 parts of its shoreline are post-industrial spaces primed for multi-species, diverse land use and productivity. The opportunity is being exploited on 85 acres of this land by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., who created Brooklyn Bridge Park not only to provide an attractive public amenity using abandoned piers, but also to withstand large storms, sea level rise, and surge. Van Valkenburgh made topographical and horticultural choices, like grading the land to act as a large berm (hill or levee) and planting salt-water-resistant plants. The parks integrity through Superstorm Sandy proved the success of the design.75

5. Rethinking the City in large-scale redesign GlashusEtt: Hammarby Sjstad Formerly an industrial port and then an informal residential community, or shantytown, in south Stockholm, Hammarby Sjstad was designed to be the most environmentally-friendly village imaginable. The design for such a place entailed a heavy investment in green public spaces, with maintenance plans 73 Port of Rotterdam Authority, Port Vision 2030, (December 2011): 60. 74 Waterfront Justice Project, The New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, accessed December 13, 2013, http://nyc-eja.org/?page_id=311. 75 Saunders, Michael Van Valkenburgh.


for the oak forest, a reed park with wooden jetties, a broad avenue, and several large parks.76 One drawback to this kind of ground-up holistic design is that the makers of Hammarby Sjstad seem to have ignored the needs of the areas original residents, which would not be a viable or just option in the case of Southern Brooklyn: The shantytown lasted until 1998, when it was demolished to make way for Hammarby Sjstad.77 The environmental integration and soft edges of this project, but not its social considerations, can set an example for New York. The villages biodiversity is bolstered by its connection, via southern parks that form green wedges, to the Nacka nature reserve and rsta forest. Hammarby Sjstads parks are not only for the use of residents and visitors, but are also intended to serve as dispersal corridors and living environments for animals and plants.78 The villages connection with the water is evident in all of its design, and especially progressive in its stormwater management. The buildings and courtyards water runs via numerous small gutters to an open storm water basin where...the soil and plants in the area can handle the contaminants from dirty water."79 The open storm water basin is the ultimate soft infrastructural edge as it has no built perimeter, taking on as much water as the weather requires. The basin itself does the filtering, and its marsh-like edges are a public amenity for the surrounding community and Stockholms general public.

76 GlashusEtt, Hammarby Sjostad: A Unique Environmental Project in Stockholm, 2007, http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/inenglish/pdf/HS_miljo_bok_eng_ny.pdf: 9. 77 GlashusEtt, Hammarby Sjostad, 7. 78 GlashusEtt, Hammarby Sjostad, 10. 79 GlashusEtt, Hammarby Sjostad, 25.


Princeton: Palisade Bay These kinds of edges are being built into designs in New York as well. An interdisciplinary team from Princeton drew up extensive and ambitious plans for the upper New York/New Jersey Harbor, calling it Palisade Bay. Their analysis and proposals are detailed in a published book called On the Water / Palisade Bay. The design incorporates several innovations in the transition from land to water including restored wetlands, oyster racks and recycled subway-car reefs to attract marine wildlife and attenuate wave action. Though the design is not in line to be developed, the ideas represent the overhaul of our coastlines that is needed to achieve true resilience and not simply perceived protection.


U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): Rebuild by Design Projects like this one, however, have been selected through the Rebuild by Design competition. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requested proposals from multi-disciplinary teams to build resiliency in the New York / New Jersey region. Ten teams made up of architects, urban designers, engineers, consultants, and landscape architects have made it to the design opportunities phase based on resiliency strategies for shorelines and communities of the Hudson-Raritan Estuary, using anything from levees to better neighborhood-level communication.80 One team, SCAPE / Landscape Architecture, is focusing on Jamaica Bay. They have set forth a plan, titled Gardening the Bay to make the Bay more shallow while still allowing motorboat traffic. The plan will expand tidal marshes and flatlands while providing more space for public use, and a local research institute will be instated to provide ongoing monitoring and progression of best practices for resiliency and flood mitigation.81

Source: SCAPE / Landscape Architecture 80 Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, Teams, Rebuild by Design, accessed November 15, 2013, http://www.rebuildbydesign.org/teams/. 81 SCAPE/Landscape Architecture, Gardening the Bay: Jamaica Bay, NYC, Rebuild by Design, accessed November 15, 2013, http://www.rebuildbydesign.org/teams/. 81


Doepel Strijkers: Renewable City 2040 Doepel Strijkers design represents the big-vision ideology that any and all of these interventions can combine to work toward. The firm works on designs that address how social parameters can be combined with technical parameters to generate a truly sustainable urban area. The company is reimagining the city to be a holistically sustainable place, where space is used efficiently and safely to be most productive for all species. These visions advance the creation of sustainable cities while necessary rebuilding is pursued after climate-related disaster. We can continue to work within current constructs while thinking idealistically: each of these case studies is an example of one or the other, but their combination reveals our growing capacity to make ideal visions into built realities.

Source: Doepel Strijkers


Part 5, Weber Court: How will natural coastal habitat be phased into the citys infrastructure? According to FEMAs Flood Insurance Rate Maps, the advisory design flood elevation incentivizes home- and business-owners to raise their properties above flood levels. If the Weber Court residents opt to take that course of action, as is being discussed in meetings with architecture firm Gans Studio, the pedestrian court will need a new shoreline. The perimeter of the Sheepshead Bay inlet, where Weber is located, is a concrete and wooden seawall. Random houses along the inlets perimeter are raised, as is the case with one house in Weber Court itself. In light of everything discussed above, I am proposing a stepped intertidal seawall to enhance Weber Courts new shoreline. The courts new edge will act as a compact living shoreline: it will grow natural habitat over time, adapting the community to sea level rise and more intense surge while allowing the marina to function as it does now -- all as a natural shoreline would do.

Context But first, some background information. Weber Court is comprised of ten below-street level houses connected by a pedestrian walkway, and is located in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Southern Brooklyn. The bay used to be connected by Coney Island Creek to Gravesend Bay until the creek was filled in the 1930s.82 The Sheepshead Bay inlet was named after the large population of fish that used to inhabit it (that doesnt anymore), and also gave the neighborhood its name. The area was originally a beach bungalow summer community, but long ago established itself as year-round housing (however, some of the housing stock still reflects a non-weatherized, more temporary use in its foundation and insulation). Weber Court contains one of the few non-bulkheaded edges in the Sheepshead Bay inlet: there is a small beach at low tide, and the seawall rises only about two feet above it, which doesnt protect the court from flooding. Sheepshead Bay (the inlet, not the neighborhood) is technically a restricted tributary of Jamaica Bay, near Rockaway Inlet. The bulkheaded edges, due to human-manipulation, are straight, approximately 1.15 miles long and 400-800 feet wide (and wider than it naturally used to be at its western end), with depths ranging from two to 44 feet. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has it classified as Class I saline surface water with uses identified as

82 PlaNYC, A Stronger, More Resilient New York, (The City of New York, n.d.) http://www.nyc.gov/html/sirr/downloads/pdf/final_report/Ch_2_ClimateAnalysis_FINAL_singles.pdf: 337.


secondary contact recreation and fishing. Secondary contact generally means that people arent in it, but theyre very close to it, touching it, or eating something that was.83 Inlets such as this one are responsible for the back door flooding that Coney Island experienced during Sandy, where much of the inundation wasnt from the ocean on the South side but from the inlets to the North: Coney Island Creek and Sheepshead Bay. Since bulkheads do not absorb any of the surge that builds in these restricted inlets, water is pushed over it during storms. With the sea level rising, surge will breach the seawalls more regularly, and eventually high tide will surpass their height. Considering the courts proximity to the water, lack of a seawall, tentative interest from the residents, and below-street-level walkways and building foundations, Weber Court is ready for an ambitious, collective intervention. Weber is also a good candidate for a shoreline overhaul in a more positive way: the court was once part of the citys largest tidal wetland, Jamaica Bay, which is currently being restored. The maps on the following page show New York Citys historic wetlands (with Sheepshead Bay circled in yellow), and a historic map of the Gravesend area of Brooklyn with present-day shorelines in blue.

83 Army Corps of Engineers, Hudson-Raritan Estuary Comprehensive Restoration Plan: Potential Restoration Opportunities Project Summary Sheets, Jamaica Bay, accessed October 4, 2013, http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Portals/37/docs/harbor/Harbor%20Program%20Images/jambayplan.pdf


Todays Estuary: The Tidelands of the New York New Jersey Harbor Estuary. Historic wetlands are in pink. (Source: NYC OLTPS and Regional Plan Association)

Gravesend Bay neighborhoods, then and now. (Source: SIRR)


Both maps show that much of what we now consider to be land was the sea not long ago. It is no wonder that South Sheepshead Bay and other parts of Brooklyn (namely Red Hook and Greenpoint)84 have been experiencing poor drainage for decades now, and storms simply compound the problem. Though these areas are of course not technically classified as wetland anymore, residents experience of regular flooding proves that they still are, whether we developed on it or not.85 Weber Court, like the five other pedestrian courts in Sheepshead Bay, is approximately four feet below current street level because these streets and houses were not included in the citys 1970s undertaking to raise the neighborhoods infrastructure. There are frequent problems with underground utilities in South Sheepshead Bay. During high tide, the water creeps up the Weber Court sidewalk toward Emmons Avenue, the street to the North of the court and also the southernmost street in the neighborhood. During Superstorm Sandy, the court took on about 10 feet of water, and most of the houses needed to be completely rebuilt due to surge, mold, and scoured foundations.86

The Citys plan for Southern Brooklyn Though Sheepshead Bay itself isnt listed in the SIRRs Full-Build flood mitigation strategy for New York City, nearby Plumb Beachs wetlands, living shorelines and reefs restoration is almost complete, and other interventions nearby may affect the Sheepshead Bay inlet. Weber Court is also located less 84 Office of Emergency Management, New York City Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan, (The City of New York, March 2009) http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/downloads/pdf/hazard_mitigation/section_3j_flooding_hazard_analysis.pdf: 144. 85 SIRR Brooklyn/Queens Waterfront Community Meeting, Greenpoint residents statements, March 17, 2012. 86 See Appendix B for Sandy storm surge inundation maps; PlaNYC: A Stronger, More Resilient New York, 341.


than half a mile from the western perimeter of NY/NJ Harbor Estuary Program and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Comprehensive Restoration Plan, who are working in conjunction with the SIRR.87 In a selection of the SIRR Full-Build plan, shown to the right, we can get a sense of how numerous and diverse the recommendations for the entire citys coastline are.88 A plan for implementation is still in the works, and all interventions will be initiated pending funding and countless other considerations. However, the coastlines surrounding the Sheepshead Bay inlet are slated for: bulkheads and levees (orange), groins (dotted orange lines), tide gates (pink), beach nourishment and dune construction (yellow lines), revetments (purple dots), and offshore breakwaters (blue). Between Gravesend Bay and Jamaica Bay, both frequented migratory and spawning habitat and part of the Department of City Plannings Jamaica Bay Waterfront Revitalization Program, lie several neighborhoods with potential to link these larger wildlife corridors.89 The coastlines of Coney Island, Gravesend, Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay and Gerritsen Beach could collectively serve to re-establish a contiguous habitat between the two bays. Starting with site-specific interventions like the proposed stepped seawall for Weber Court, strategies could span to off-shore habitat artificial reefs and islands that would serve as surge attenuation for all of these neighborhoods. With improved corridors for wildlife, the disparate habitats would have a greater chance of growing and providing benefits to built communities on shore.

87 NY/NJ Harbor Estuary Program and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District. Maintained for OASIS by the Center for Urban Research, CUNY Graduate Center. OASIS Map: Comprehensive Restoration Plan Layer, 2012, http://www.oasisnyc.net/map.aspx?categories=ENVIRONMENT&mainlayers=Cache_Transit,NYCT_subway,CRP_POLY&labellayers=CRP_POLY&query=crpsite&queryid=604&zoom=5&x=1001703.2644686527&y=151261.114944648. 88 See Appendix A. 89 New York City Department of City Planning, Waterfront Revitalization Program (WRP), Nyc.gov, accessed October 19, 2013, http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/wrp/wrp.shtml.


Conceptual rendering of Coney Island Creek wetlands and tidal barrier, with Rockaway inlet barrier. (Source: SIRR) Above is one of the citys concepts for the Gravesend and Coney Island neighborhoods. Coney Island Creek would become an estuary and park, providing uses for humans as well as the popular Gravesend Bay bird population and other species in the bay. The parks wildlife will also help to clean the Creeks water, which is polluted with trash and fuels from the ships that must idle in the Verrazano Narrows while awaiting clearance to enter the Upper New York Harbor.90 The city has already planned initial phases and done considerable work (especially publicly after Sandy) into restoring wetlands and other natural habitat.91 It will be important to closely monitor living shoreline implementation and restoration in order to collect data and possibly re-visit calls for revetments, levees, and bulkheads in the future.92 We should be striving to replace all of our hard infrastructure with dynamic shorelines where possible. At the Living Shoreline Summit in Williamsburg, Virginia in 2006, panelists collective data revealed that planted tidal marshes and supporting structures can be effective alternatives to revetments and 90 Kaiser Park manager Eric Wyche, personal interview, Coney Island, September 15, 2013. 91 Jeanna Bryner, Bloomberg: Post-Sandy NYC Will Lead Climate Change Battle, CBS News, December 6, 2012, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57557552/bloomberg-post-sandy-nyc-will-lead-climate-change-battle. 92 See Appendix A.


bulkheads.93 The panel also noted that each planting and intervention must be site specific, especially in terms of expected wave energy: The key is to continue to develop, design, and place structures that are suitable for the environment, wildlife, and landowner goals.94 As demonstrated with Vancouvers habitat skirt, it is possible to improve habitat when building in or near the water, while maintaining the integrity of the development and possibly improving its longevity. The city has made commendable efforts to tailor interventions to specific locations, however, funds should be diverted to more provocative pilot projects and research that has the potential to be more effective than familiar band-aid approaches. Experimentation is essential to developing ever-better solutions: this is how we build resilience.

Gans Studio Gans Studio, my client for this project, is a small architecture firm based in Red Hook, Brooklyn that has been working with the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood since January 2013. The firm is currently working on several projects involving green infrastructure, Southern Brooklyn, better drainage and sustainable housing.95 The Studios focus in Sheepshead Bay is on the below-street level (sunken) courts, including Weber.

93 ibid. 94 Duhring, Evaluation of Living Shoreline Techniques, 37. 95 Climate Resiliency Planning in Sheepshead Bay, Pratt Center for Community Development, 2013, http://prattcenter.net/projects/sustainable-community-development/climate-resiliency-planning-sheepshead-bay.


Sheepshead Bay below-street level pedestrian courts (Source: Gans Studio) Since January, Gans Studio has presented rebuilding strategies for the short- and long-term to residents of the courts. The presentations focused on the residents concerns immediately following Superstorm Sandy, such as where to get funding to rebuild, how to remove mold, flood-resistant and non-toxic building materials, and how to wet-proof -- a strategy that prepares a home to get wet without suffering long-term damage or losing essential functions.96 For a long-term vision, Gans Studio produced renderings of future possibilities for homeowners. The three schemes below represent some of the options that the Studio has discussed with court residents. They experiment with raising houses individually to the Design Flood Elevation (13 feet), raising the court as a whole to street level, or a combination of both.97 (See Appendix C for Gans Studios preliminary drawings and brochures.) Elevation of the courts houses and walkways will allow better subgrade drainage for inland flooding, and significantly decrease homeowners insurance premiums for FEMAs National Flood Insurance Program.

Three experimental schemes for elevating houses in sunken courts or mews. (Source: Gans Studio) 96 ODPEM: How to Flood-Proof Your Home, Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, accessed November 22, 2013, http://www.odpem.org.jm/DisastersDoHappen/TypesofHazardsDisasters/Floods/ProtectYourselfFromFloods/HowtoFloodProofYourHome/tabid/292/Default.aspx. 97 Design Flood Elevation refers to FEMAs flood insurance definitions, where the DFE is two feet above the Base Flood Elevation. The basement must be above the DFE to avoid flooding and for the houses inhabitants to avoid astronomical flood insurance premiums; Definitions, FEMA.gov, June 18, 2012, accessed December 9, 2013, http://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program/definitions#D.


The Studio is also drawing up plans for a neighborhood-wide climate change resilience strategy involving more absorptive land use. At the time of writing, Gans Studio is working with engineers to discuss the feasibility of their concepts. Below is one of four iterations the Studio has imagined for the courts.

One of four ideas for sustainably rebuilding the Sheepshead Bay courts (Source: Gans Studio) The most challenging part of designing these iterations is underground infrastructure such as sewage, drainage pipes and electrical utilities. Without the cooperation of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection and utility providers, it will be very hard to make any changes that systematically solve the communitys problems. Pending more information from engineers and utility agencies, the proposal for the stepped seawall (detailed below) will incorporate drainage and rainwater outflow systems that effectively drain the streets while keeping the ecosystem healthy. In combination with the residents preference, the final project will be decided based on cost, public funding secured, and consultation with engineers and landscape architects.

Part 6, Proposal and limitations As a focus area within Gans Studios work and a pilot study for the citys vulnerable shorelines, I am recommending a stepped intertidal seawall for Webers elevated shoreline, which will grow habitat over time while enhancing the homes and livelihoods of the courts residents and marina members. A stepped wall was built underneath the Vancouver Convention in B.C., Canada: since two-thirds of the Centers


foundations are in the ocean, federal fisheries required the builders to protect marine habitat. The designers went further, though, to promote the re-establishment of habitat in the area, and they, along with their LEED certifier, started calling the seawall a habitat shelf instead. The concrete skirt steps down in five tiers from the underside of the public walkway into the harbor and will therefore serve to create 1,500 lineal feet of marine habitat. In combination with the buildings extensive green roof, the designers of the Center created acres of habitat, instead of simply building over it, all while enhancing human use and enjoyment.98

Source: LMN Architects in association with PWL Weber Courts steps will mimic the Convention Centers on a smaller scale, reaching ten feet from the shore for about 100 feet along the coastline. The concept incorporates one of Gans Studios iterations for elevating the Weber Court houses in which the walkway is raised five feet to be approximately as high above Emmons Avenue as it is now below it. The houses would then be raised the additional eight feet required by the Design Flood Elevation. The stepped seawall will create a more gentle slope from the raised court down to the water, and provide habitat for marine wildlife without disrupting the maritime traffic or the courts marina dock. It will maximise the ecological value of Webers shoreline 98 Coastal Defences and Biodiversity, Exeter.ac.uk, 2010, accessed December 9, 2013, http://www.exeter.ac.uk/coastaldefencesbiodiversity/index.html.


by attracting more mobile invertebrates from nearby Jamaica Bay.99 Below is a section of one of Gans Studios elevation schemes (not included in the diagram above), and the proposed addition of a stepped seawall.

A section of one of several concepts for elevating Weber Court houses, facing West, with the option of a stepped intertidal seawall on the new, raised shoreline (Source: Gans Studio and author) Organizations mentioned throughout this paper, such as the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, LMN Architects, and Michael van Vaulkenberg Landscape Architects can lend their expertise to ensure effective implementation. Especially for the structural components, we will need to learn what has proved livable for marine and estuarine organisms so that the design provides functional ecological benefits.100 Some experimentation will be necessary. The slope at which th

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Wild Urban Coastlines - Palmer