Preparing for Long Island's more watery future

While it’s nearly impossible to predict the future, one thing can be certain if you live on Long Island’s South Shore: Flooding will become a greater issue for more of us year after year.

With the changing climate and more tropical storms, a Regional Plan Association report estimates that between 33,000 and 50,000 homes on Long Island, especially on the South Shore, may be lost within the next 15 years due to flooding.

As an environmental science student from Malverne, reports like these draw my particular concern. Flooding and tropical storms have affected me and my childhood home, with memories of 2012’s Superstorm Sandy looming large. Despite the notable damage and lives lost, as well as money set aside by the state for storm resiliency improvements, few steps have been taken to improve the Island’s flood resilience, furthering my worries about what the future may bring. Sandy, and that Halloween two days after it 13 years ago, are still fresh in my mind.

Recent flood events, like the effects of Hurricane Erin on Jones Beach, remind us yet again that we have to act. Long Island is not ready for another Sandy. A recent project in my hometown, however, has brought me new hope for what Long Island’s response to climate change and flooding can look like: Our flood-resistant future must lie in nature-based solutions. The best part: it’s relatively cheap, easily replicable and even gives my town a nice new park just down the road from me.

While Long Island’s beautiful beaches and estuaries get deserved attention and acclaim, we often forget that suburban-packed towns like Hempstead are built atop Long Island’s natural systems of forests, streams and rivers. Our natural waterways grant us a solution for managing water flow in our towns. This way of thinking is the pioneering idea behind Malverne’s Pine Stream Extension Project, a $6.3 million effort aimed at providing nature-based solutions in the form of a new water drainage system at a stream in Whelan Field. By building a stormwater basin beneath the baseball diamonds and revitalizing the waterway with native plants, planners took notes from the natural stream ecology of the area to create an effective stormwater drainage system. Before, all rain went directly into Pine Stream. Besides reducing stormwater runoff, the state-funded project has created a new, improved park with renovated ballfields and a walkway along the stream, providing quality green space for residents, including my family.

Beyond our Island, increasing flood frequency threatens almost 10% of Americans on and off the coast. With this higher risk, states such as North Carolina and Vermont have also begun implementing nature-based flood solutions to address the increasing rainfall and rising floods of recent years. Studies have shown that these solutions are cost-effective.

While classic stormwater systems are effective at draining water in most cases, recent flooding crises nationwide have shown that our current infrastructure is not enough. Malverne’s storm system was able to prevent widespread flood damage in my hometown at the time of Hurricane Erin and other similar tropical storms. But for the future we need more flood infrastructure, and standard “gray infrastructure” is often more expensive to expand. By putting forward a hybrid strategy, bolstering those pipes and drains with new, cost-effective, nature-based solutions, we stand our best odds against a flooded future, while improving our green spaces too.

This guest essay reflects the views of James Daly, a junior studying sustainability, ecology and policy at the University of Vermont.