Climate Resiliency and Adaptation

In the next 10 years, climate resiliency and adaptation in NYC will be driven by the climate justice principle that all New Yorkers should live, learn, work and play in safe, healthy, resilient, and sustainable environments, even as the climate changes. 

 

Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time. For the next generation of climate resiliency and adaptation policies and programs, City agencies must collaborate with communities and each other in new ways to advance climate justice for all New Yorkers, especially those who have been excluded or marginalized based on their race, income, abilities or neighborhoods in which they live. We must look at a wide range of different solutions to adapt to a hotter, wetter city – from designing buildings and infrastructure that can safely withstand flooding to training community-based organizations on how to help vulnerable groups stay cool during heat waves. The five Goals in the Climate Resiliency and Adaptation theme focus on expanding climate risk awareness and action, using climate risk information in public policies and investments, supporting the housing needs of waterfront residents, managing flood risk in NYC’s coastal communities, and promoting climate-resilient design of buildings and infrastructure systems. Through these goals and strategies, the City will continue to proactively and permanently weave urban coastal adaptation into processes for long-term planning and everyday decision-making.

 

Broaden awareness of climate risks and how New Yorkers living and working on the waterfront can take action to adapt to the impacts of climate change

+ How can we do it?

  • Build a common understanding of local climate risks through sustained conversations between waterfront residents, community leaders, climate and social scientists, private practitioners and government agencies through various programs and platforms.   
  • Expand access to information and other resources for residents and small businesses about flood and heat risks, including timely and accessible information about flood insurance, flood preparedness, heat health and building retrofits.   

Apply an understanding of systemic climate vulnerabilities to guide land use policies and infrastructure investments in coastal areas

+ How can we do it?

  • Coordinate climate risk-informed land use policy with public investments in development and infrastructure.   
  • Employ the Coastal Land Use Framework to align development and public investments in housing and infrastructure in coastal neighborhoods with future flood risk. Regularly update the framework with the best available climate risk information and evolving understanding of systemic climate vulnerabilities. 
  • Identify adaptation needs, actions and resources for public infrastructure systems. Align target service levels and other adaptation actions to the Coastal Land Use Framework. 
 
 

Preserve and create new housing for a mix of incomes in appropriate locations and provide waterfront residents with new resources to manage flood impacts on their homes

+ How can we do it?

  • Help meet NYC’s need to preserve and create new housing for a mix of incomes in appropriate locations to encourage healthy, equitable and resilient waterfront neighborhoods.   
    • Advance neighborhood planning initiatives to support the vitality and resiliency of waterfront neighborhoods, consistent with the Coastal Land Use Framework and through the Climate Adaptation Roadmap.   
    • Support the redevelopment of select underused City-owned properties for affordable housing in waterfront neighborhoods, consistent with the Coastal Land Use Framework. 
    • Encourage affordable housing production and the production of a diversity of housing options citywide to enable housing mobility.
  • Establish programs for tenants and owners in waterfront neighborhoods that are informed by meaningful engagement and neighborhood planning.   
    • Support residents in improving their housing conditions through new or improved policies and programs that may offer financial, technical or counseling assistance, while seeking to affirmatively further fair housing, through the initiatives identified in Where We Live NYC.
    • Expand community ownership through shared equity housing and economic development models.   
    • Identify new models for coastal land management and community stewardship that reduce long-term climate risks and offer pathways for residents to steward community-oriented uses in partnership with the City. 
  • Promote housing stability through flood retrofit and housing mobility services, prioritizing low- and moderate-income households that are affected by chronic high tide flooding and other compound flooding risks. 
    • Pursue multiple funding sources to support flood retrofit and voluntary housing mobility assistance for homeowners and renters, including technical assistance, financial counseling, construction assistance, rehousing assistance, and retrofits that reduce exposure to flooding risks. Prioritize assistance in areas with financial need and chronic flood risks.
    • Update the NYC Coastal Storm Activation Playbook to enhance interagency coordination for post-storm communication and to equip storm survivors with actionable information on housing reconstruction, flood retrofit, and housing mobility options shortly after a federally declared disaster, when available.  

Identify opportunities for coastal flood protection, where feasible and practicable, to manage the impacts of coastal storm surge and high tide flooding

+ How can we do it?

  • Complete the remaining planned post-Sandy coastal flood protection projects, including in Red Hook, the Rockaway Peninsula, Coney Island, Staten Island South Shore, the East Side of Manhattan and Lower Manhattan.  
  • Incorporate natural and nature-based features into coastal flood protection projects, where feasible and practicable.  
  • Improve interagency and jurisdictional coordination to encourage effective engagement, implementation, operations and maintenance of coastal flood protection projects.  
  • Work with City, State and Federal partners to identify opportunities for future coastal flood protection projects in the areas of all five boroughs where the greatest potential exists to reduce flood vulnerability.  
  • Explore funding sources for new coastal flood protection projects and their ongoing operations and maintenance.   
 
 

Expand resilient design practices that allow waterfront buildings and infrastructure to withstand the impacts of coastal storms, increased precipitation, extreme heat and sea level rise

+ How can we do it?

  • Further incorporate resilient design principles into all public buildings and infrastructure on the waterfront to ensure that new and retrofitted assets withstand increasing climate risk exposure.   
  • Update local regulations to anticipate future flood risks based on the best available climate risk information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the NPCC.   
  • Accelerate the implementation of resilient design in private buildings by expanding technical, design, and financing resources available to property owners and renters in high-heat areas and in areas with flood risk from rainfall and coastal storms.   
  • Identify at-risk neighborhoods for implementation of cloudburst design strategies to improve stormwater management in partnership with MOCR, NYCHA, NYC DOT, NYC Parks, and other City agencies.
  • Incorporate future rainfall projections into drainage planning, where hydraulically feasible and with other considerations, to help manage future flood risks from increased precipitation.

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