DeFalco outlines need for coordinated coastal resilience
DeFalco says NYC has 520 miles of shoreline and must get ahead of risk with a coordinated citywide approach, not isolated projects. She describes DEP's 2023 creation of the Bureau of Coastal Resilience and its responsibilities.
Now to coastal resilience, which is obviously one of the reasons we're here today.
As the weekend storm reminded us, New York City is a coastal city.
We have 520 miles of shoreline, millions of...
New Yorkers living and working near the water, and a changing climate that is making the risks that we face more urgent.
For too long, cities like New York have largely followed the same cycle.
A major storm hits, we recover, we rebuild, and we move on.
But that can't be our long-term strategy.
We need to get ahead of the risk.
Just as importantly, we need a coordinated citywide approach to coastal resilience.
Not a collection of individual projects that are planned, built, and maintained in isolation.
For us to be successful, we need strong institutional capacity, technical capacity, and financial capacity, which must include state and federal partners and sustained political support.
That work is underway right now at DEP.
In 2023, DEP created the Bureau of Coastal Resilience, or BCR as we often call it, to bring greater focus and accountability to this enormous challenge.
BCR is responsible for planning the future of our coastline and for the operation and maintenance of the city's growing network of coastal flood protection infrastructure.
This is truly a citywide effort.
DEP works closely with Parks, EDC, SBS, DOB, DDC, DOT, City Planning, MOCEJ, and many other partners to move critical coastline resilience projects forward across all five boroughs.
But DEP isn't simply building coastline resilience.
We're building the workforce, the expertise,
operating procedures, and the maintenance systems necessary to make sure this infrastructure actually works when New Yorkers need it.