NYC: Few Cities Are Doing More to Map and Respond to Rising Waters New Yorkers are tough, but they’re no match for an everweirder, ever-fiercer climate. It took only 48 hours for Hurricane Sandy to overwhelm coastal neighborhoods, killing 44 people, damaging or destroying 70,000 housing units, and leaving behind $19 billion in damages. The ferocious remnants of Hurricane Ida dropped more than three inches of rain in an hour, submerging streets and subways, and killing 11 people in flooded basement apartments. These impacts underscore the growing threat that climate change poses to cities such as New York, especially to their most vulnerable residents. In the US, 90 percent of natural disasters involve a flood, according to FEMA, making flooding the most frequent and the most expensive natural disaster in the country. Estimates suggest that by the 2050s, sea level rise and inland floods could impact 1 of every 10 people on Earth and cost cities more than $1 trillion. Now, as the US federal government engages in a historic nationwide infrastructure buildout, researchers, nonprofit organizations, and GIS specialists are harnessing new technology to improve understanding of where flooding is likely and to better rank investments in resiliency. These include advances in real-time flood sensor systems, sophisticated hydrological models, and high-resolution satellite monitoring. In New York City, officials are preparing a decades-in-themaking revision to federal flood maps that will, for the first time, include projections that show how climate change will impact the city’s neighborhoods. Mapping Risks and Vulnerability Communities across the US need better risk mapping. The White House recognized this need and created the Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation, or CMRA, tool in 2022 to surface projected exposure to climate hazards. Similarly, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 20 This waterfront view of the Brooklyn Bridge during a storm is a reminder of the widespread flooding there during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
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