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Climate Variability and Change and New York City Planning for the Future
By Nancy Beller-Simms, Program Coordinator, Sector Applications Research Program, NOAA/OGP
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The tri-state New York City (NYC) metropolitan area, with 20 million people living, working and commuting in its 31 counties, is home to the largest public transportation system in the United States. Four out of five of New York’s boroughs are located on islands. The bridges and tunnels that connect these boroughs are critical conduits along the main transportation paths to the suburbs and counties located in the region and are critical for national and global commerce. The potential impacts and costs associated with climate variability and change along with the rebuilding of aging infrastructure that is already taking place in this region could potentially stress the regional economy and impact the lives of millions of residents.
Climate variability and change have other near- and longer-term implications for decision-makers in coastal cities. The problem for these important metropolitan regional centers of population and economic value is that there is very little usable information on climate variability and change. Dr. Roberta Balstad, Director of CIESIN, along with co-investigators Christopher Lenhardt and Dr. Robert Downs at CIESIN, Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig of the NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University, and Dr. William Solecki at Hunter College have recently completed a two-year grant through NOAA’s Office of Global Programs, Human Dimensions of Global Change Research Program (now known as the Sector Applications Research Program) to address this problem. This team of scientists has developed the Climate Change Information Resource for the New York Metropolitan Area (CCIR-NY), a website that includes information tools developed especially for decision makers and those interested in planning for climate in an urban environment.
Figure 2. The Battery Annual Mean Sea Level Rise, 1920-1978, 1984-1998. Courtesy of CCIR. |
Figure 3. Flooded PATH station in December, 1992. Source: NYC Office of Emergency Management. |
Figure 4. Potential Category 2 hurricane surge on the Saffir-Simpson (SS) Hurricane Scale at Holland Tunnel, Manhattan entrance. Source: NYC Office of Emergency Management. |
Figure 5. Shaded area represents the potential height of floods from a Category 2 hurricane at South Ferry (Battery) subway station. Source: NYC Office of Emergency Management. |
In creating the new website, the team first assessed the information needs of urban policy makers, analyzing both the ways that they obtain and use information and the kinds of information that they take into account in their work. The team gathered and organized existing climate forecast, policy, and scientific information and also tried to anticipate how urban climate change information would be maintained and used in the future. Potential users of CCIR-NY include: city, municipal, and county planners; natural resource managers; transportation managers; water managers; waste managers; educators and citizens.
The recently released website can be found at http://ccir.ciesin.columbia.edu/nyc. It is an easy-to-use information resource that is expected to foster better decisions related to the health, safety and livelihoods of the citizens in the region. The site is designed to be useful to all levels of readers, from climate experts to grade school students. In addition to providing basic information about climate in the NYC area, the website provides users an opportunity to become part of a network that will share expertise and information related to climate change and variability in the NY metropolitan area, join an email list where interested individuals may discuss items related to climate change and variability impacts on urban environments, and browse a resource list that includes web links and a bibliography of publications related to the topics discussed on the website.
There has been worldwide interest in this study. The PIs are presently working with planners in Tokyo and London on developing similar information tools in their locations.
A video of the ceremonies at Columbia University which led to the official premiere of CCIR-NY will appear shortly on OGP's website.
For more information, contact the project
principal investigator:
Dr. Roberta Balstad
Director, CIESIN - Columbia University
PO Box 1000, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964
(845) 365-8988
roberta@ciesin.columbia.edu
For information on the Sector Applications Research Program program, go to http://www.ogp.noaa.gov/mpe/sarp.
Nancy Beller-Simms
Program Manager, Coordinator, Water Resource Management, NOAA/OGP
nancy.beller-simms@noaa.gov
301-427-2351
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NOAA’s Climate Program has recently established a Regional Decision Support (RDS) effort to accelerate the Program’s interaction with users of climate information and forecasts at multiple spatial and geographical scales. The RDS portfolio helps NOAA identify and serve the nation’s needs for climate information to support decision making through an integrated program of: 1) research and assessment related to impacts and decision making needs; 2) transition of research to operations; and 3) operational production and delivery of local and regional climate services that can be utilized to enhance adaptive management options. NOAA’s RDS activities include efforts managed by the research and operational entities of the agency, and involve productive partnerships with other agencies, universities and stakeholders. In support of the research component of the RDS effort, the newly established NOAA Sector Applications Research Program (SARP) will identify and promote research and application priorities that foster improved decision support for fundamental climate-related issues in key socio-economic sectors. |
[7/11/05]
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