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Architecture is now beginning to consider the ecological ramifications of new builds, but resiliency projects will be needed to protect cities from the more immediate impacts of climate change. On that front, plans for New York City are already well underway.
Constantly the backdrop for fictional menaces and mass destruction, whether that be at the hands of a giant marshmallow man, a rampaging gorilla, the Cloverfield monster, a tornado of sharks, or the entire cast of the Avengers, New York City is now preparing for a very real adversary: climate change.
Renowned as the economic hub of the US – as well as one of the nation’s most populous cities – New York is pre-empting worsening extreme weather events that will arrive should we fail to meet global decarbonisation targets.
During COP26, climate experts at Sky News put together illustrations of what 3C warming would do to major conurbations throughout the States, and it appears city planners in the Big Apple have gotten the message.
As it’s surrounded by some 830km of coastline, the most pertinent concern is obviously rising sea levels – which climate experts fear could consolidate between 20 and 75cm by 2050. Anywhere in this predicted range would quite literally leave areas of East Manhattan underwater.
To prevent both the worst eventualities and minor inconveniences in the foreseeable future, the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project will create protective infrastructure stretching 4km across the city border.
