NYC Creates Climate Change Roadmap for Builders: Plan for Rising Seas

The nation's largest city has a message for the architects and engineers planning the New York of tomorrow: Fortify new buildings against the ravages of climate change or risk rebuilding as global warming worsens.

To help plan future buildings and infrastructure that avoids the hazards
of sea level rise, the city designed an interactive flood risk map looking
ahead to the end of the century. This image shows how the flood plain
is expected to expand across more city blocks between 2020
 (light blue) and 2080 (white).

New guidelines issued last week by the office of New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio are some of the most comprehensive for how builders should protect infrastructure against rising seas, more powerful storms and climbing temperatures. They draw on science published in 2015 by a city panel of experts that estimates rainfall, sea level rise and other climatic shifts expected for the city in the decades ahead.

For now, developers are not required to follow the recommendations, but the plan is for all city agencies to be using the guidelines for new projects by the end of the year, according to Susanne DesRoches, deputy director of infrastructure policy for the mayor's Office of Recovery and Resiliency.

Read the Inside Climate News story - “NYC Creates Climate Change Roadmap for Builders: Plan for Rising Seas.”