Building resilience at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
- Rannikkoalueiden suunnittelu
Following repeated storm surges and flooding, cities along the eastern seaboard are developing strategies to strengthen their resilience. At the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a climate resilience strategy was developed to pave the way for a flood-resilient future, critical for the Yard's ongoing success.
"Because of where the Navy Yard is located, on the East River, it was heavily impacted by Sandy—with about $100 million in damages," says Simon Kates, AICP, WEDG, senior project manager at Ramboll.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard is an area steeped in shipbuilding history, now a bustling business district home to 550 companies and 13,000 workers.
Using Scalgo Live, we could quickly identify areas at risk from future coastal flooding”.
Simon Kates, Ramboll
A key component of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Resilience Strategy was assessing flood hazards and vulnerabilities associated with both coastal and precipitation-based flooding. For Simon and his colleagues, it was essential to evaluate projected sea-level rise to gain a detailed understanding of future flood exposure.
"FEMA flood maps are based on historical flood data, and they don't account for climate change. We needed to look forward", explains Simon. “Using Scalgo Live, we could quickly identify areas at risk from future coastal flooding”.
For the resilience strategy, the Ramboll team developed projections for sea-level rise and increased precipitation in 2050, 2080, and 2100, and used Scalgo Live to map the flood extent. This revealed vulnerabilities beyond those shown in the FEMA maps.
Risk map for the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The flood map from Scalgo Live was combined with critical assets at the Yard to develop a detailed vulnerability assessment.
The team visualized flood extents, exported the results as shapefiles, and overlaid them with key assets to create a vulnerability assessment based on exposure, criticality, and adaptive capacity for Brooklyn Navy Yard assets. This forward-looking analysis became the foundation for the resilience strategy.
An integrated resilience strategy
Pluvial flood exposure needed to be considered alongside coastal flooding to develop an integrated strategy. Because the Navy Yard is coastal and located at the bottom of the watershed, it is impacted not only by rainfall falling directly onsite but also by runoff flowing from the larger catchment upstream.
"Because of the topography, flooding on site is not limited to the water that is falling on the Navy Yard", Simon describes. "and this is another effective use of Scalgo Live."
In Scalgo Live, you can click on a location and instantly see where the water is coming from and where it’s going. The Brooklyn Navy Yard has an extensive upstream catchment that drains surface water into the area during extreme rainfall events.
A catchment-based approach
The results from Ramboll’s comprehensive analysis informed a suite of interventions that emphasized multi-functional infrastructure that provides co-benefits. These included deployable gates, raised promenades, and stormwater pumps. They also designed blue-green features such as terraced planter-integrated seawalls.
Planning the most cost-effective measures for pluvial flooding requires looking beyond the Navy Yard.
Simon explains: "If you’re thinking with an integrated watershed mindset, then the solutions are not only onsite. We also have to think about the larger catchment - upstream from the Yard."
A big part of how Ramboll approaches flood mitigation is to look at flooding at a catchment scale, and find solutions to detain and slow down water before flood damage occurs. Simon and his team have applied this methodology in several projects along the East Coast.
For example, Lambertville, NJ is a small city on the Delaware River. It sits at the bottom of three watersheds, with a series of tributaries to the Delaware cutting through the city, and Lambertville has flooded historically. Riverine flooding has been known for generations, and residents have ways to prepare for these events. However, a new challenge has emerged in recent years: flash floods caused by extreme rainfall.
"We used Scalgo to see where the water is collecting, not just within the city, but within these broader watersheds, and what the flow paths were, and where we could expect those impacts to occur."
Simon Kates, Ramboll
Lambertville NJ is learning to live with extreme precipitation and is looking for solutions beyond the traditional hard infrastructure.
Simon and his colleagues developed a comprehensive climate adaptation plan for Lambertville that included a watershed approach to explain and visualize pluvial flooding for the mayor and the entire community.
"We used Scalgo to see where the water is collecting, not just within the city, but within these broader watersheds, and what the flow paths were, and where we could expect those impacts to occur."
On the left: A watershed approach - identifying public land and combining this with flow paths help identify where solutions could be pleaced in the upstream of Lambertville. One the right: Initial plan for nature-based solutions in Lambertville.
There is no single "hard infrastructure" solution that can fully protect Lambertville from flooding, and the city cannot solve its flood problems alone. A catchment-based approach is needed, focusing on implementing nature-based solutions in upstream areas to detain surface water and reduce flooding.
Building the future
Whether planning for storm surges at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, or flash flooding in Lambertville, one common truth is that water doesn’t follow jurisdictional lines or outdated flood maps that don’t account for climate projections—and neither should our planning.
Simon concludes: "When you can show someone—visually—what will happen with an increase of just a few inches of water, it changes the conversation. Whether or not they call it impacts from climate change or stormwater flooding, the map still shows their building underwater. And that’s a place to start building common ground and find the right solutions."
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