The New York Harbor Storm-Surge Barrier is a proposed flood barrier system to protect the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary from storm surges. The proposed system would consist of one barrier located across the mouth of Lower New York Bay, possibly between Sandy Hook (N.J.) and Rockaway (N.Y.), and a second on the upper East River to provide a ring of protection to most of the bi-state region. Through extensive use of floodgates, both barriers would have largely open cross-sections during normal conditions to minimize environmental impacts on the estuary and port operations.
Alternatively, the southern barrier could be located between Coney Island and Staten Island. A storm surge barrier at this location would be half as long, but it would require supplemental barriers across the entrances to Jamaica Bay and the Arthur Kill.Robert Yaro and Daniel Gutman, "The Plan to Save New York From the Next Sandy Will Ruin the Waterfront. It Doesn’t Have To.," New York Times, June 15, 2023
To address the problem of sea level rise, smaller-scale projects to increase seawall heights or otherwise raise vulnerable coastlines would be necessary. Thus a storm-surge barrier system combined with coastline adjustments would form a two-tiered strategy to protect the region. The barrier system could also be extended eastward, filling in the gaps between barrier islands, to protect the various communities lining the south shore of Long Island.
The proposal was developed in the wake of Hurricane Sandy by the Metropolitan NY-NJ-LI Storm Surge Working Group (SSWG), composed of prominent civic leaders, social scientists, oceanographers, engineers, and architects. The group is chaired by Malcolm Bowman, a professor of physical oceanography at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.Malcolm Bowman's biography.Patrick McGeehan, Making a Pitch, Again, for Barriers to Block Storm Surges," New York Times, October 11, 2017. Within the proposed barrier system lies crucial infrastructure such as the seaports and maritime facilities; ground-level and underground transportation terminals; three major international airports; subway and roadway tunnels; hospitals; communication centers; the industrial complex of northern New Jersey; as well as the millions of residents at risk in New York City and coastal New Jersey north of Sandy Hook.Henry Goldman, "New York City Planners With Sandy Nightmares Say Barrier May Come Too Late," Bloomberg News, June 20, 2017.
Need
The New York-New Jersey Harbor is vulnerable to storm surges that threaten to inundate the region, put in danger large numbers of the metropolitan area's residents, devastate much critical infrastructure and damage some of its most important economic assets. At particular risk are the most vulnerable, low-income communities located in many public housing projects located on low-lying land near to the coast.
The source of energy for all hurricanes is the elevated temperatures of the tropical Atlantic Ocean and the associated warm surface temperatures of the Gulf Stream flowing northwards along the eastern seaboard. Accordingly, hurricanes are most dangerous when their track lies slightly offshore.
Hurricane Sandy's power came from unusually warm water lying off the mid-Atlantic Coast and the merging of two major storm systems. Technically, Sandy was downgraded from a category one hurricane to an extra-tropical storm just before it made landfall in New Jersey on October 29, 2012. Nevertheless, as the largest storm in extent ever recorded by the National Weather Service (at 1100 miles in diameter), Sandy had severe storm-surge impacts on New York and New Jersey.
Because of global warming, oceanographic and meteorological experts currently predict that increasingly warmer future ocean surface temperature is the "new normal", implying that extreme weather events like Hurricanes Sandy and Maria could become more intense and possibly more frequent during future hurricane seasons. As the world's oceans steadily become warmer, storms are becoming stronger and larger. These storms will cause more damage if they follow past storm tracks.New York Academy of Sciences, "New York City Panel on Climate Change 2015 Report", Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. ISSN 0077-8923, January 2015.Lin, et al., "Hurricane Sandy's flood frequency increasing from year 1800 to 2100,", PNAS 113 (43) 12071. For example, research suggests that hurricanes that have hit the New York City area since 1970 are more intense or have larger wind fields, producing higher storm surge and flood risk. When added to rising sea level, what was a 500-year flood event before the anthropogenic era (i.e. pre-1800) is now a 24-year flood eventAndra J. Reed, et al., "Increased threat of tropical cyclones and coastal flooding to New York City during the anthropogenic era,", PNAS 112 (41) 12610-12615, October 28, 2015. and in 30 years will be a 5-year flood event.Andra J. Garner, et al., "Impact of climate change on New York City's coastal flood hazard: Increasing flood heights from the preindustrial to 2300 CE,", PNAS 114 (45) 11861, November 7, 2017.Stefan Rahmstorf, "Rising hazard of storm-surge flooding," PNAS, 114 (45) 11806-11808, November 7, 2017.
The risks to the New York Metropolitan Region also include wind and flooding damage from winter nor’easter storms which can be as serious, or even more dangerous, than rarer hurricanes. While hurricanes are short and violent, nor’easters tend to persist longer — for several days — also producing large storm surges that ride atop successive high tides that occur twice daily.
Adding to storm surge risks, sea levels are also rising. Over the last 160 years the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Battery Park tide gauge has measured the rate of sea-level rise as one foot per century.NOAA, Battery Park Mean Sea Level Trend. But sea level rise has begun to accelerate, potentially adding an additional 3–6 feet to current sea level by the end of this century, or possibly more if the melting of the Greenland ice sheet continues at ever increasing rates and huge chunks of ice around Antarctica continue to break off.James Hanson, "Why I Must Speak Out about Climate Change," TED Talk, 2012.Damian Carrington, "Sea levels set to 'rise far more rapidly than expected.'" The Guardian, March 30, 2016.Don Jergler, "RIMS 2016: Sea Level Rise Will Be Worse and Come Sooner," Insurance Journal, April 12, 2017.David Wallace-Wells, "The Uninhabitable Earth: Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak — sooner than you think," New York Magazine, July 9, 2017.
Precedents
Similar, albeit more modestly-sized, but still highly effective storm-surge barriers have been in operation for nearly half a century in three New England communities — the Stamford Hurricane Protection Barrier in Stamford, Conn.; the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier in Providence, R.I.; and the New Bedford Harbor Hurricane BarrierU.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "New Bedford Hurricane Protection Barrier". in New Bedford, Mass. Hours before Hurricane Sandy struck Stamford, the city's 17-foot-high movable barrier was closed to withstand an over-11-foot storm tide which struck western Long Island Sound (at some locations on the sound, the storm tide was even higher than the 11.5-foot storm tide measured at The Battery in New York City), devastating every waterfront community on the northwestern coast of the sound — except Stamford.Mireya Navarro, New York Times, "Weighing Sea Barriers as Protection for New York", November 7, 2012.Andrew Morang, "Hurricane Barriers in New England and New Jersey: History and Status after Five Decades," Journal of Coastal Research, 32 181–205 (2016).
Larger barrier systems protect more than a dozen major cities, including the Delta Works protecting the south of the Netherlands and the MOSE Project protecting Venice. New storm-surge barriers on Lake Borgne and Lake Pontchartrain are part of the protection for New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
The famous Thames Barrier is typically deployed an average of about twice per year, protecting the heart of London from excessive tidal flooding. The Greater London Authority is currently studying proposals to strengthen its defenses.
The new Saint Petersburg Dam was built to stop the frequent floods in the city, which had often devastated the city. It was first used on November 28, 2011, just months after it was completed, and limited storm water rise to below flood level. Мощнейший ураган и наводнение накрыли Петербург: вода угрожает городу (ВИДЕО) , Главред, November 28, 2011 It prevented the 309th flood in the history of the city.
Background During the same period when the New England storm surge barriers were built, the Army Corps of Engineers warned of possible catastrophic storm surge flooding in New York City and discussed a possible storm surge barrier system for New York Harbor.Samuel Gofseyeff and Frank L. Panuzio, "Hurricane Studies of New York Harbor," Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 128 (1963). However there was little local interest in such a project.John C. Devlin, "U.S. Survey Sees City Flood Peril," New York Times, October 18, 1961.
With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, convened the New York City Panel on Climate Change in August 2008 to investigate the city's vulnerability to a variety of climate-induced risks including the risk of a major storm-surge event. At about the same time, the American Society of Civil Engineers organized a three-day conference and subsequently published a report entitled "Storm-Surge Barriers to Protect New York City Against the Deluge."Malcolm J. Bowman, "A City at Sea," New York Times, September 25, 2005.D. Hill. M.J. Bowman, J.S. Khinda, "Storm Surge Barriers to Protect New York City: Against the Deluge,” 2012.James Glanz and Mireya Navarro, "Engineers’ Warnings in 2009 Detailed Storm Surge Threat to the Region," New York Times, November 4, 2012.
After Hurricane Sandy devastated the New York - New Jersey metropolitan area in 2012, governments struggled both to recover and to plan better protection for the future, including regional storm-surge barriers. In his January 2013, State of the State address,Governor Andrew Cuomo, "NY RISING: 2013 State of the State", October 29, 2012. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed to "work with other government partners to timely complete a comprehensive engineering evaluation of these potential barrier systems."
The City of New York, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, organized a "Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency" (SIRR), which developed a blueprint for reconstruction that was released in June 2013, only eight months after the storm. That over-400-page document describes the demographics and morphology of the region, the storm and its impacts; provides background on extreme weather events including non-storm events such as heat and intense rainfall; describes various resiliency measures and strategies; and describes specific initiatives, studies and projects to be undertaken.City of New York, "PlaNYC, A Stronger, More Resilient New York", June 11, 2013. Some of these projects are underway, using a combination of federal and local funds.Lisa W. Foderaro, "In Rockaways Infusion of Sand Will Soon Raise Beaches Hit by Hurricane Sandy," New York Times, February 28, 2014.Nathan Kensinger, "Four years after Sandy, Staten Island's shoreline is transformed," Curbed, October 27, 2016.Nathan Kensinger, "Climate change in Trump's NYC: How at-risk neighborhoods are combating rising sea levels," Curbed, January 26, 2017.Nathan Kensinger, "A long-neglected Queens neighborhood grapples with the effects of climate change in NYC," Curbed, April 13, 2017.Luis FERRÉ-SADURNÍ, "Could the Rockaways Survive Another Sandy?" New York Times, July 13, 2007.
City and regional response