Resilient Coastal Communities and Climate Adaptation: Lessons from New York vs. New Zealand
Floods in New Zealand in 2022. Photo: Aya Morris
As coastal communities around the world take action climate adaptation, lessons learned from flood risk management in New York City are applicable to other cities and communities.Equitable solutions to flood risk also have other benefits for communities and the environment, being Resilient Coastal Communities Projectresearch partnerships between New York City Environmental Justice Coalition and Columbia Climate School’s Center for Urban Sustainability.
Pass A 2022 New Zealand Fulbright Science and Innovation Postgraduate Award, I got a chance to travel from New Zealand to New York City six-month research fellowship Working with the Resilient Coastal Communities project team, while also completing a Sustainable Development Goals MSc exist Massey University. In February 2023, I will be taking the lessons I have learned back to our community in Aotearoa (also known as New Zealand).
As an island nation in the South Pacific, Aotearoa is highly vulnerable to the risks of climate change, whether from rising sea levels or changing weather patterns drought, wildfire, flood and storm surge. All regions of New Zealand have a high percentage of coastline to land area and my home is subtropical Far North – the long and narrow peninsula – especially so.freshwater Dune Lake and coastal aquifer The risk of ecological degradation and saltwater intrusion due to reduced rainfall and sea level rise, and water shortage presents a growing problem, with frequent flooding and infrastructure damage.
Photo: Aya Morris
Through my work in the Resilient Coastal Communities project, I have had the opportunity to work with New York-New Jersey Harbor and Tributaries Coastal Storm Risk Management Study (hat), a US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) project to address flood risk in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area. (Draft reports and environmental impact reports are open to Deadline for public comment is March 7, 2023.)
In November 2022, we hosted the USACE team at Columbia University, where they presented their research to a group of academics from various institutions, while we presented our team’s proposal Community-driven knowledge co-production research.
Over the past six months, I have participated in several public meetings on the topic of HATS and completed an analysis of the draft HATS Environmental Impact Report, and prepared public comments on behalf of the Resilient Coastal Communities Project Team. I shared information with other stakeholders to inform their public comment and spoke at a NYC City Council hearing at Town Hall.
I would like to make two main recommendations to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding HATS and its broader flood risk management efforts; first, to center the community and advance environmental justice throughout the process; and second, to take a more holistic approach to flood risk management ,Such as Water Development Act 2022to address sea level rise, rainfall-related flooding and other flood risks, and storm surges.
In Aotearoa, the cost of storm surge damage in some coastal areas is projected to triple over the next 20 years, despite Storm Surge Barriers in the Far North proven so far can not afford. Equity and environmental justice are important issues to consider in New Zealand, with many indigenous Māori communities on the front lines of the climate crisis.
nature-based solutions, rather than gray infrastructure, are gaining acceptance for their potential to provide more sustainable and affordable long-term adaptation to flooding and climate change, while delivering better water quality outcomes. Wetland restoration, green infrastructure, and living coral reefs are some of the nature-based solutions I visited in New York City. I hope to share what I have learned about nature-based flood risk management solutions when I return home.
pass Columbia Climate SchoolI met the Fulbrighters and Obama Scholars and network with researchers and professionals from around the world through conferences and conferences such as by the waterhosted by columbia world project. The event brought together leading community organizers, local government representatives and academics from around the world for a series of conversations around strategies for advancing inclusive models of flood adaptation and water governance.Meeting the esteemed New Zealand Māori professor was a highlight for me dark moon-Lanning in this event.
Aya speaks at the Sandy+10 event at the Columbia Climate School.
This rethink water Hosted by Columbia World Project during the conference New York Climate Weekwhich provided access to water industry professionals and my research mentors paul guellet is a panelist in the discussion Key challenges to water supply and security.
In November 2022, I participated in measure what matters In his keynote speech at the summit in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Army’s undersecretary for civil engineering cited the need to institutionalize a framework for making decisions that value nature-based solutions.
This Sandy +10 A conference at the Columbia Climate School on the 10th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy focused on community leadership and climate justice.Community leaders working with the Resilient Coastal Communities Project at Roundtable 9: Are Communities More Resilient Today? After the panel discussion, I presented a brief summary of the session to a wider audience.
I have had the privilege of connecting with communities in New York and New Jersey and participating in work aimed at highlighting community voices in coastal resilience conversations.The experience I gained in community-led knowledge co-production will continue to inform my work at Aotearoa, where I work in community development as a public servant New Zealand Ministry of Home Affairs and focuses primarily on supporting Māori and Pacific communities.
These learning experiences are very important to my topic research United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly around sustainable cities and communities, climate action and ocean protection. I visited UN Headquarters while in New York City and had the opportunity to meet people who work for and with the UN.
I look forward to continuing these conversations when I return to Aotearoa, and to future opportunities to collaborate with researchers in Colombia and beyond.thank you very much Resilient Coastal Communities Project team to Columbia Universityarrive Fulbright Program and New Zealand Fulbright.
