Will New York Be Underwater by 2050?

this episode of real engineering is brought to you by brilliant a problem solving website that teaches you to think like an engineer when Hurricane sandy struck New York on October 29th 2012 it pushed a deluge of water through the city breaking the city's coastal defenses with ease flooding homes subways and businesses alike it's inundated electric facilities causing power outages across the city all told the storm and flooding is estimated to have caused nineteen billion dollars of damage and tragically claimed the lives of 43 people how cities react to adversity like this tells you a great deal about their character and New York responded swiftly the flooding that hurricane sandy caused was an unfortunate combination of factors as the hurricane traced its path along the eastern coast of the United States they looked set to curve out into the Atlantic a glancing blow for New York but it's merch was halted when a high pressure zone from the north blocked its progress causing the counterclockwise spiraling storm to whip-its winds into New York the storm pushed a wall of water across the Atlantic arriving at its peak at 9:24 p.m. just a half hour after a full moon high tide it's impossible to predict when the next storm like this will hit New York but we do know the likelihood of flooding is rising looking at high water events in lower Manhattan over the past 70 years we can Paris some data besides the clear increase in frequency of extreme high water events in the past decade thanks to increases in frequencies and hurricanes these data points don't show any real trend Hurricane sandy broke records but singular data points like this aren't particularly useful let's attribute each individual foot of sea level height to the three primary factors that drivers tide level storm surge and sea level rise as a result of climate change since the start of the 18th century now let's set a pair we absolutely do not want to cross a 10.5 feet of high water the New York City subway system floods in September 1960 the subway came within just a half foot of flooding if we adjust the sea level rise attributed to climate change to the present day September 1962 would have passed this critical level this is not a prediction this is a measurable sea level rise humans have been measuring sea levels for a long time it's a simple task of placing a ruler by the water sea level rise is going to continue this is an irrefutable fact the ocean is warming water expands when it heats the estimated thermal expansion of the Opera is 700 meters of the sea between 1971 and 2010 as a result of a warming rate of 0.01 5 degrees Celsius per decade will result in sea level rises between 0.4 and 0.8 millimeters per year you can dismiss this data you can argue against it you can ignore simple scientific principles you are free to buy a home in a projected flood zone the world will go on however the rest of us will continue the logical steps of preparation Hurricane sandy caused nineteen billion dollars of damage if that 19 billion dollars of wealth had instead been used to prepare New York's coastline what could it have achieved we know storm surge barriers work the Netherlands has proven that these systems work they have built an entire network of storm surge barriers that not only protect their existing cities but help reclaimed once unusable land from the sea we have covered their use of storm surge barriers in the past so we won't go into the engineering detail but a link for that video will be attached in the end card of this video for you to watch after this one potential storm surge barrier locations have been planned for New York with two primary options three smaller storm surge barriers could be placed one in the Narrows one at Arthur Kill and another on the East River alternatively a large storm surge barrier could Connect New Jersey to the Rockaway Peninsula with another barrier in the East River once again these would without a doubt provide immense protection for New York but for now the plans were rejected for a number of reasons one the costs were too high potentially costing up to 25 billion to the design approval and construction process could take up to three decades to complete three massive levees would have to be constructed along the nearby coastline such as the Rockaway Peninsula to ensure a storm surge couldn't simply go around the barriers this would significantly alter the terrain of these highly populated areas which likely wouldn't go down well with the residents for the barriers could cause more severe flooding for areas not protected by them like Long Island and those to the northeast of the East River barrier and finally the barriers would have a significant environmental impact on the ecology of the bay I cannot imagine that New York a city with a GDP over 1.5 trillion dollars would continue shunning the idea of a storm surge barrier if the risks continue to rise however for now they have gone for a more community driven approach and this is what they came up with this is the map of the plan proposed in 2013 just a year after the devastation of Hurricane sandy it's a drastic overhaul of its coastal defences priced at a cost of 20 billion just over if you count 1 billion as just over the estimated cost of damage from Hurricane sandy it's a complex variety of localized multi-purpose protections this was the general path the storm surge took through New York City when Hurricane sandy struck the first part of this plan is to create barriers in the water to remove some of the kinetic energy and reduced the height and power in the waves the first line of Defense's here will be offshore breakwaters located in these locations a living breakwater project due for construction this year of the South Shore of Staten Island will consist of a rock mound covered with a bedding stone layer these rocks will be chosen and textured to encourage a revival in local ecologies like oyster reefs other on land projects will also aim to reduce wave power and provide protection like living shorelines and wetland areas highlighted in these regions on the map Brooklyn Bridge Park is a living shoreline that was built before Hurricane sandy struck and had held up incredibly well and fulfilled its purpose of protecting the residents of Brooklyn flooding but keeping the water out of the Brooklyn streets the plants here like the pitch pines along the stabilized shoreline are salt resistant the soil of the park has a high sand content to help saltwater drain away quickly and if needed the irrigation system of the park has been designed to flush saltwater out of the soil if there are many more projects like this planned for around New York and they differ depending on the terrain and space available soon after Hurricane sandy New York City began constructing 7.2 kilometres of 4 meter high sand dunes here on the Rockaway Peninsula built simply with sandbags covered with sand and stabilized with grasses and fencing a cheap solution that fits the natural environment and will help prevent the damaging flooding that occurred here in 2012 and this approach of beach reinforcements and beach nourishment will be used in these locations smart localized soft strategies like this helped a lot but they earned enough sometimes a harder engineered solution is needed bulkheads retaining walls and levees are planned in these locations these don't need much explaining they are elevated hard barriers to storm surges in other areas where it would be cheaper and less damaging to block the surge at the entrance to an English smaller storm surge barriers have been proposed like the Rockaway inless Newtown Creek and Gowanus Canal all of which allowed the storm surge in 2012 to penetrate deep into New York City neighborhoods by far the most interesting solution is the big you a 16 kilometre loop around Manhattan the jewel in NYC scram the big you will use a variety of solutions to living shorelines with natural park levees that will double as parks for the residents will be used in places like Battery Park on the tip of lower Manhattan deployable walls like these on a river in Austria will be attached to the underside of the elevated highway along the two bridges and Chinatown areas which will flip down when needed a bridging berm will run for 3.5 kilometers from East 13th Street to core Lear's Hook Park this design has already been awarded 335 million dollars from the federal government for implementation and will consist of Natural Park bridges to connect the East River Park to the neighboring areas with ambitious plans to cover FDR highway completely with more park amenities this will effectively raise the riverbank by nine feet four feet above hurricane Sandy's high-water mark this pattern of community driven solutions will continue and wrap right around Manhattan protecting it from storm surges and raising the critical sea level / a little further out of reach while some of these projects have begun construction and even been completed there are many more which have been blocked by local residents this would be easy to dismiss these people as NIMBYs or climate change deniers and that is true for many but hopefully this video will do what it was intended to do to show the positive impacts projects like these can have on communities New York is a city that has the financial capital to back projects like this up but these are issues which affect all cities around the world my own hometown of Galway has been pummeled with increasing numbers of storms every year that has seen many buildings flooded and carries damaged this problem is only going to get worse over time and we need to prepare and work towards minimizing climate change by investing in renewables nuclear and other low-carbon energy sources I just started a series about Europe's transition to 100% renewable starting with a critical first step grid interconnectors which will allow European countries 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Channel: Real Engineering

Views: 504,246

Keywords: engineering, science, technology, education, history, real

Id: k8_SbVg5Ris

Length: 12min 41sec (761 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 14 2020