January 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 35

WESTCHESTER COUNTY

LONG ISLAND
SOUND

NYC Parks uses predictive climate data
to map and plan for future extreme flood
events.

BRONX

NEW JERSEY

MANHATTAN

QUEENS

BROOKLYN

STATEN ISLAND

ATLANTIC OCEAN

NYC Flood
Zones with
Sea Level Rise

NYC Park in Flood Zone
by 2100s

See list for park names

Miles
0

2050s 100-Year Flood Zone

NYC Park

City-Wide
8

a comprehensive vision and wish
list of future park projects. When
the boardwalk restoration project
was completed under budget, NYC
Parks was able to redirect the " underrun dollars " toward this wish
list to further build community resilience through seven additional
park projects. The Army Corps is
planning to supplement the protective new boardwalk by building
a series of groins along the 5-mile
stretch. These engineered groins
are long, narrow structures built
out into the water from a beach to
prevent beach erosion.

2015 100-Year Flood Zone

2080s 100-Year Flood Zone

Data Source: NYC Parks, FEMA 2015 Preliminrary FIRM, NPCC 2014

IMAGE COURTESY OF NYC PARKS

2012. Unprecedented storm surge
and flooding caused severe property damage, major transportation
and communications disruptions,
and dozens of fatalities.
Hurricane Sandy also devastated New York City parklands:
Trees, trails, athletic fields and
critical park infrastructure were
submerged and demolished by the
salty floodwaters and storm surge.
The rebuilding and resiliency planning that followed the disaster provides unique insight for park and
recreation professionals, planners
and community leaders seeking
guidance on building resilience in
their own communities.
NYC Parks has been working in
collaboration with the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers for more than
a decade on studies and shoreline
resilience concepts to help protect
vulnerable coastal communities.
But Sandy spurred NYC Parks into
action. Using FEMA Disaster &
Recovery Funds from Hurricane
Sandy, NYC Parks successfully rebuilt 5.5 miles of boardwalk in just
three years along the Rockaways, a
narrow peninsula between Jamaica Bay and the New York Harbor
in Queens. Based on predictive
storm-surge data, the reconstructed boardwalk was elevated and
designed to minimize future storm
surge and flood risk, while fully
integrating updated recreation elements and elevated facilities.
As part of the restoration, NYC
Parks led a community planning
effort to survey area residents
about other park amenities and
improvements, which resulted in

Using FEMA Disaster & Recovery
Funds from Hurricane Sandy,
NYC Parks successfully rebuilt
5.5 miles of boardwalk.
The Shape of Resiliency
and Flood Protection
NRPA staff toured two projects,
on opposite sides of the East River: Hunters Point South Park and
the East River Park. Earlier this
summer, Phase II at Hunters Point
South Park was completed. Phase
I, which features active recreation

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Parks & Recreation

January 2019 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2019 - Parks & Recreation