Brooklyn Waters: Sea Level Rise, Sustainability, and Resilience along the Brooklyn Waterfront (FREE)

Event Date: April 20, 2018

DATE: Friday, April 20, 2018

TIME: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm

LOCATION: Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Court Room, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Description

The Brooklyn Waterfront Research Center (BWRC) presents Brooklyn Waters, a full-day conference on sea level rise, sustainability, and resiliency along the Brooklyn waterfront. Brooklyn Waters will examine how preparation for storm surge and rising tides has already remade – and is set to radically remake – the coastal areas of Kings County.

While the Brooklyn waterfront holds much in common with other coastal regions—and with those of its sister boroughs— the challenges it faces are unique. The past two decades have ushered in a dramatic transformation of the Brooklyn waterfront district’s built environment. Now, we are faced with yet another dramatic waterfront transformation in the coming two decades, one the will be driven by the unwieldy forces of ecological systems.

The conference opens with a provocative primer on sea level rise, subsidence, and storm surges. A panel will discuss how these issues have already catalyzed change along the water—in the waterfront’s infrastructure, its transportation systems, its low-lying communities, and its public housing. The core of the conference, however, will center on the question: What is the future of Brooklyn’s built and natural waterfront?

Brooklyn Waters will offer a diverse set of perspectives on the topic of future interventions and approaches to rising tides. Various waterfront community leaders will share their grassroots planning efforts. City officials will speak about both the near and long-term promises of resiliency planning. Architects will debate the role and limits of design in creating resilient neighborhoods. Environmental experts will discuss efforts to protect Brooklyn’s natural and constructed shorelines, including Jamaica Bay and Brooklyn Bridge Park. The conference’s agenda will span the gamut from urban policy, engineering, community activism, to land use.

Light refreshments and a full lunch will be served. For further questions and information, please contact ccastellan@gradcenter.cuny.edu .

RSVP here.