After Hurricane Sandy and the surfacing of the detrimental effects of how humans have changed the climate, it seems that New York City has finally understood the importance of taking precautions to one of its biggest storm water management problem: flooding. After Sandy had “absolutely devastated” Lower Manhattan, as described by the director of the Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency (Durkin), the city announced that it will be spending 100 million dollars to build a flood protection system, including levees, flood walls, and green spaces to soak up storm water through creation of parks. Similar measures are going to be carried out in the Lower East Side as well. The city is utilizing engineering firms and design teams to attempt to raise elevation levels along the coast and add the parks to not only help the flood issue but also to make it more neighborhood-friendly.
At the brink of catastrophe from the effects of climate change, Lower Manhattan takes measures for flood protections from the foreseen violent storms of our future. #bcsfh2ohttps://t.co/WITrFI4Osv
— Naveera Arif (@NaveeraArif) November 28, 2017
This project highlights the importance of understanding the mistakes humans have made by building their progress in industrialization without taking into account the effects it will have on the environment. The changes we have made in the climate are now becoming aware to us, especially in how it will negatively affect us. The rise in sea levels and stronger storms will exacerbate the flooding problem we already have in New York City Lower Manhattan, and now the city is making a stand to install precautions, even utilizing green infrastructure through the creation of extra parkland. Now that we are at the brink of actual catastrophe, we start to implement these changes and understand that the effects of the climate changes will be detrimental enough to “shut down the city” (Durkin).
