plan-ting ahead: community resilience through wetland reclamation in jamaica bay
ENTRANT NUMBER: N174
backyard wetland spines
regulating flows natural systems
A series of wetland easements create riparian corridors to direct storm surge and provide storm water management for the neighborhood.
Tidal wetlands exist as the lungs of a waterway that contract and expand. As the life of Jamaica Bay shifts from Bay to Lagoon to Bay, Canarsie’s floodplain residences will be able to shift as well from grass lands to marshlands as backyard wetland spines link the neighborhood and provide natural barriers for surge.
enriching life
Rainwater harvesting and greywater systems serve to substantially mitigate wastewater in Canarsie. One of the greatest flooding impacts in Jamaica Bay was from backed up combined sewer systems. Reducing system demand can increase ecological and human health.
Help reduce demand for water, limit CSO, and aid residents be more self-sufficient with the natural systems of their neighborhood.
The addition of ecologically active concrete and bulkheads will provide hard infrastructure that facilitates a symbiotic relationship with bay health. Wcologically active concrete provides habitat for oyster beds adding another layer of resilience to the system.
The built environment interventions of permeable pavement, rainwater collection, composting toilets and ecologically active concrete operate as augmentations to the natural systems in the area providing buttressed support to the natural floodplain management techniques installed in the community.
maintaining quality Maintaining a good water quality free of pathogens, and other pollutants that are harmful to human health. Is a natural inexpensive and socially beneficial approach.
permeable pavement + GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY
adjusting to change
UNDERGROUND PIPE network
The right-of-way in New York represents 70% of land area. Adapting roadways with permeable pavement in appropriate areas can significantly meet NYC Green Infrastructure Plan goals and reduce system demand on storm water infrastructure. Additionally enabling the streets to slow down the speed of surge within communities.
Underground detention and pipes will store and direct water during surge and flooding to absorb excess water from tidal wetlands.
This essential mitigation element will enhance insurance availability for the community and provide an essential safeguard to persons and property in the event of storm surge and flooding.
Water efficiency training will be provided to the community. This education will help the community see the needs for water conservation, within their new climate and natural ecological water systems.
social systems Resiliency is defined beyond physical networks to include the social networks which act as support systems in times of disaster. The communal recreational space provided by the tidal wetland spines provides a place to increase community bonds for a third layer of support within Canarsie.
strategic retreat
wet storm proofing
water efficiency training
Mimicking the adaptability of natural systems through the landscaped and built environment provides the only opportunity for continued residential life as storm frequency and tides increase.
constructed treatment wetlands Constructed wetlands provide space for phytoremediation in one of NewYork’s highest priority watersheds. Simulating tidal action via vettical subsurface flow, powered by solar pumps, these contained systems will treat liquid effluent from compost toilets, bringing nutrients to wetland spines.
CONSTRUCTED SYSTEMS
Elevation of residential and commercial space to enable continued community life is an essential constructed response to rising tides.
community wetland trust
Through a series of and design workshops the neighborhood can continue to adapt creatively, participate and collaboration in it’s own future success.
Creating an adaptable system with the opportunity for underground detention, building elevation, and wetland expansion all coordinated as independent and coexisting components of one ecoresidential neighborhood is the essential tool for adaptable survival.
SYSTEM FUNCTIONS
A Shared community trust for wetland easements will provide universal habitat protection for shared public natural space essential to safety and environmental improvements.
SYSTEM COMPONENTS
PLAN-TING CANARSIE
Our design utilizes ecological restoration, green infrastructure, building elevation, and underground retention to provide multi-tiered systems with built in redundancy in the face of flooding. Over time the wetlands expand with a system of managed retreat from an expanding bay.
The introduction and inception of these systems into the neighborhood creates a network of resources, strengthens the threads of community, and builds a resilient framework for a flood-prone area. Over the long-term many of these systems allow residents of the neighborhood to adapt and survive as sea levels rise and storms become more intense.
Historic Tidal wetland maps’ exhibit borders similar to projected sea level rise throughout the New York Harbor area. Working in alignment and in concert with natural systems our design seeks to use wetland strengths and natural barriers to address rising tides. Marshes provide the natural flexibility and redundancy essential to coastal resilience. Enhancing, as opposed to minimizing Canarsie’s strengths as a waterfront marshland, will reunite the community with the water and provide residential flexibility and protections.
1800’s
A long-term buyout process will provide diminishing incentives to sell and buy property in FEMA Flood Zones. The most risk-prone areas will be the first to access such funding. Empty lots will add to the ecological systems and resilience of the area.
elevate inhabitable spaces
resilience + design workshops
plan-ting ahead
CANARSIE: A peninsula of marshland flanked by Fresh Creek Basin, Paerdagat Basin, and the Jamaica Bay. The waterfront area historically been settled as a fishing village of the Lenape Native Americans and later the Dutch . Today, this tradition continues through the popularity of recreational fishing on Canarsie Pier. The area is now a middle class neighborhood of one and two family homes with two large public housing developments on the waterfront. Canarsie Park serves as the transition from marshland to recreational space to residential living.
ecologically active concrete edge
composting toilets
Adding wetland spaces throughout the neighborhood, will improve biodiversity, resiliency, and landscape functionality throughout the area.
reclaiming canarsie
Embracing the natural wetlands of Canarsie will enhance and protect this coastal community. Restoring a native landscape via green infrastructure will rejoin communities to the waterfront and to one another. Wetland spines create shared natural space providing recreational engagement and natural resilience to surge and tidal flooding. These shared spaces will blur actual and perceived spatial boundaries through ecological restoration and flexible installations. This will enhance not just the residential community, but provide a most holistic realization of community, binding humanity and ecology in one system.
An integrated system of wetland easements and tidal corridors will provide a creative natural system for floodplain management to direct and absorb water during times of frequent tidal flooding and surge. These elements enhance communities with a native recreational landscape strengthening community ties to one another and to the local ecology.
rainwater collection systems
tidal + freshwater wetlands
RESTORING tidal ECOSYSTEMS & coastal communities facing climate change
1950-60’s
sea level: 0ft (current) storm surge: X ft (sandy) wetlands: existing
sea level: 0 ft (current) storm surge: New Fema ADVISORY BASE FLOOD ELEVATION zones wetlands: current + spines
sea level: 1 ft rise storm surge: X ft wetlands: existing + spines
sea level: 2 ft rise storm surge: x ft wetlands: existing + spines + constructed subsurface
sea level: 4 ft rise storm surge: wetlands: existing + spines + constructed subsurface = reclaimed
today
2013-2015
2020
2050
2080
ENTRANT NUMBER: N174