Impact of sea level rise on airports
Due to climate change contributed by global warming, the sea levels have been gradually rising, and are predicted to continue rising. I focused on the effect of rising sea levels on New York and neighboring airports. Airports are a crucial components of any major city and country. The provide a site for communication, travel, business, trade and engineering. They play a major role in economic development of cities. Using Sea Level Rise viewer expected diagrams of how sea levels will look on different airports can be seen. By 2050 the sea level is projected to rise to 3.44ft at the extreme value. Below are the two New York airports as well as two neighboring states’ airports and how they are expected to look after the sea level rise:
Laguardia airport:
John F. Kennedy airport:
Sikorsky Memorial airport of Connecticut:
Newark airport of New Jersey:
When considering the risks of rising sea levels, it is crucial to think about the effects of it on airports. As shown, Laguardia is largely covered by water thus removing any use of the runway. A similar thing can be said for the Sikorsky Memorial Airport of Connecticut which is neighboring New York. JFK and Newark airport are comparatively less covered in water, although a thin layer has started forming around them. Although 2050 may seem like the distant future, preparing our airport and protecting them against potential rising sea levels will ensure that the above displayed conditions do not occur.
Climate Change along the Staten Island Coast
With rising sea levels due to global climate change, the coastal regions and lauded beach front zones are at the highest risk for flooding and eventually submersion into the ocean. According to the article “New York City Panel on Climate Change 2015 Report Executive Summary,” New York City has a projected sea level increase by the year 2100 of potentially 6ft. Considering that data for the entirety of NYC, the region near the coastal beaches of Staten Island is at risk to a larger degree and at a faster rate. The Sea Level Rise Viewer displays that by 2100 and with “High” coastal flooding, there will be a rise in sea level of 9.22 ft. These areas along the coast and beach on Staten Island are streets with low lying homes and recreational areas such as fields and parks. Basing predictions off the effects that were seen during Sandy, these areas are prone to quick flooding that spreads to other surrounding zones rapidly. This rise in sea level also poses a risk for severe flooding/loss of all residential homes near the water and according to the image above, these effects will cause sea level to surround one of Staten Island North Shore’s largest hospitals. Overall, the effect of sea levels rising will create a new Staten Island coastline, sans the beaches that currently exist along the edge.
Rising Waters in Western Queens
Growing up, I considered the neighborhoods of Sunnyside, Woodside, and Long Island City to an extent to be my home. All of these neighborhoods will be affected as waters rise in the next 80 years. In the past, New York City has seen an average rise in sea level of 1.2 inches per decade, but scientists are now seeing that waters are beginning to rise faster, having more consequences for New Yorkers. The New York Academy of Sciences projects that by 2100, the waters surrounding New York may rise as high as six feet. Using this projection and the NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer shows that flooding will affect these neighborhoods drastically. Both Woodside and Sunnyside are marked deep red indicating that by 2100, populations in these areas are vulnerable to the effects of climate change through flooding. Additionally, one can see that rising waters may become an issue for Long Island City, but there is a park that is meant to serve as protection. This is especially interesting to consider because Long Island City is a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood filled with luxury condos. It makes me wonder how the area will fare in the next 80 years.
The Potential Permanent Loss of Southeast Brooklyn
With the way climate change is progressing, the imagery above may not be too far from reality in the near future, which is a daunting thing to think about. This map from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “Sea Level Rise Viewer” depicts a section of Brooklyn in its southeast region that is highly at risk of danger–primarily to do with rising sea levels. Whenever there are hurricanes and emergency weather conditions, this particular region is always told to evacuate and for good reason given the location so close to the coastline and Atlantic Ocean. We can see that areas such as Coney Island that attract large crowds of people on a regular basis aside from its permanent residents may potentially be gone within the next century, an eerie possibility. Given that Brooklyn is New York City’s most populated borough, the idea that such a large chunk of the city may be flooded due to rising sea levels is a probability no one wants to picture.
Central Queens More Vulnerable than Neighborhoods of Brooklyn
I retrieved this screenshot from NOAA CREST’s flood vulnerability indictor, where dark red means more vulnerable. What intrigued me the most is the fact that my general living space, the corner of Woodside, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights is more vulnerable than other areas of New York City. This begged me to ask why. I’m almost positive that the living standards in these areas of Queens are higher than that of a neighborhood like Brownsville which I compared them to. This is weird to me since it seemed like income density was the major factor for vulnerability. I plan on looking into other characteristics of the demographics that play a part in vulnerability, like the percent of incapacitated or elderly individuals in the area.
Alley Pond Park
Alley Pond Park is located in Queens, New York. In an urban environment like New York City, it is essential to protect parks and the diminishing wildlife in them, especially understanding further the urban forest ecology. If anyone has been to Alley Pond Park, it may seem like a hike walking around Alley Pond, that will soon become something close to swimming. As seen by the screenshots above, Alley Pond will become mostly overwhelmed by water due to the rising sea levels. Shown in the local scenario of nearby town, Willets Point, sea levels could increase drastically up to nine feet in less than 100 years.
Rikers Island Safe from Danger
(Image is taken from Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts)
As seen Rikers Island is free from vulnerability as opposed to its surrounding environment. This data may have been acquired from years past when developers were aiming to dredge out the area. Rikers Island is stated to be 26 feet above sea level which can contribute to it being a haven during a 9 feet increase. Because of this, Mayor Michael Bloomberg refused to evacuate the Prison in preparation for Hurricane Sandy. He gave a tense response to a question about the island jail saying, “We are not evacuating Rikers” he declared even as other shoreline communities and City Island were cleared of residents. This action is not because of his need to be harsh on criminals but because it would not be necessary because of the small effect the rise in waters will have on the island.
Sea-Level Rise in New York
I live in Brooklyn, so I tried to focus on scenarios at or around where I live. I looked at extreme sea-level rise at 10 feet, and the results were practically unbelievable. As this screenshot depicts, areas of Brooklyn Bridge Park, the East River Park in Manhattan, and the Brooklyn Navy Yards would all be susceptible to being at least partially underwater. Climate change leads to the devastation of areas that play a crucial role in our daily lives as New Yorkers. With the sea-level rise dangers being what they are, it is really difficult to conceive of any physical measures that could be taken to put off what seems to be the inevitable, looking at these maps. The layers in the map demonstrate how, although areas all over New York City will be affected by sea-level rise in the years to come, it is not clear just how badly each area will be impacted. If any preparation measures are taken, it would be difficult to properly determine just how extreme the preparations would need to be. Even then, it is likely that sea-level rise would only continue to increase, leading to more precautions that need to be taken – and more uncertainty about where the future of our coastal safety lies.
The Procession of Staten Island Marshlands
It’s quite amazing how far inland the effects of worst-case-scenario flooding can reach. This image depicts central Staten Island, which is currently mostly occupied by reclaimed marshlands and a few relatively large shopping centers. The brown in this image represents land projected to be reclaimed by the marshlands in the event of heavy flooding, and the Heartland-Springville area is just about totally reclaimed. The Staten Island Mall, one of the main shopping centers of Staten Island, has been totally isolated by swamplands, and the Freshkills Creek has expanded so far that it distends to the Latourette area, considered to be the heart of Staten Island. Even this area, which is a decent distance away from the Staten Island coastline, is deeply and negatively affected by a rise in sea level.
Far Rockaway shall Dissapear
I was shocked to see how much of far Rockaway is going to disappear because as I frequent that particular area and am not entirely enlightened to discover that much of it shall be meeting Neptune. My friend lives there and I like the beach there and I myself do not worship the sea as the ancients once did. I believe that we must all come to-gether to combat this assault on our land. It is also particularly concerning because it is happening soon and will affect people’s lives whom I actually know in the life.
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