Hurricane-resilient agri to increasingly destructive storms

One of the most destructive: Hurricane Ida. 

Hitting the Louisiana coast in August 2021, and following three storms (Elsa, Fred, and Henri) that crisscrossed through the Northeast, Ida became the costliest disaster this year, ranking among the top-five most costly hurricanes on record for the U.S. since 1980.

Unfortunately, for the Northeast region, a Yale-led study suggests that the 21st century will see an expansion of hurricanes and typhoons into mid-latitude regions, including major cities like New York and Boston.

Stormwater runoff is one of the biggest challenges of hurricane season. In a natural environment, the majority of rainwater infiltrates soil and replenishes the groundwater aquifers. Urban areas don't work the same way. With impervious surfaces, there is minimal permeable groundcover. With coastal cities and island nations, where stormwater has nowhere else to go, the result is flooding.

We may not have the power to prevent such disasters, but we can certainly build up our resilience to them. Two strategies that can help: urban agriculture and green spaces.

New York's Financial District and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan hopes to green waterfronts to ensure that Lower Manhattan withstands "increasingly intense coastal storms, while knitting a new flood defense system into the fabric of the city." "The upper level will protect against coastal storms, with buried floodwalls that double as elevated open spaces," and "the waterfront esplanade, designed to safely flood during a coastal storm, brings people close to the water." This combination of grey and green infrastructure is projected to save the city $1 billion per year in damages from 2050 onwards.

A similar push to build climate resiliency in an urban area threatened by extreme weather patterns can be found in downtown Atlanta. The newly built Rodney Cook Sr. Park has been specifically designed to flood. Capable of absorbing up to 10 million gallons of stormwater, it include an expansive pond, which can overflow into a surrounding wetland meadow. The park also doubles as a community hub, offering playgrounds and sports grounds along the waterfront.

Urban farms are similarly offering a novel approach to stormwater management with their dispersion and infiltration benefits. The Gil Hodges Carroll Street Community Garden is one that was designed with stormwater management in mind. The site includes bioswales planted along the sidewalk to collect rainfall, and rain gardens that help improve the local water quality by preventing the sewer from overloading with polluted water.

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Photo Caption: Rendering of New York's Financial District and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan waterfront during coastal storm conditions; Rendering sourced from the NYCEDC and the Mayor's Office of Climate Resiliency (MOCR)

Source: Agritecture