Library

2015

New report reveals climate projections and resiliency plans for NYC through the year 2100

Date: 

February 18, 2015

Source

: Inhabitat | Nicole Jewell

Summary

:  De Blasio's latest plans for resiliency infrastructure build on predecessor's.

BIG-Rebuild-by-Design

It’s been a busy week for Mayor de Blasio. First he launched the Green Buildings Technical Working Group to up the ante on the city’s ambitious carbon emissions reduction plan, and now he’s released a major report by the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) that reveals climate projections for NYC through the year 2100. Based on scientific information gathered by a NASA climate model, the report, entitled Building the Knoweldge Base for Climate Resiliency, focuses on improving the city’s current and future infrastructure based on probable increases in temperature and precipitation as well as current sea level.

Mayor de Blasio, bill de blasio, nyc mayor, nyc technical working group, greenhouse emissions, climate change, sustainable initiatives, green design, archicture, green architecture, building-based emissions, New York City Panel on Climate Change, (NPCC) nyc climate change, nyc 80 by 50, climate change projections 2100

The report was researched by the NPCC in collaboration with NASA researcher Cynthia Rosenzweig. The information found in the report provides climate projections through 2100 for the first time, and estimates probable increases in temperature, precipitation and sea level in the New York City area as well as the broader metropolitan region.

Related: Mayor de Blasio launches Green Buildings Technical Working Group as step towards NYC’s 80 by 50 objective

Rosenzweig explained the function of the NPCC and its role in NYC’s resiliency plans. “The NPCC is a prototype for how federal government scientists and municipal policymakers can work together,” she said. “This collaboration will help ensure that climate science developed for the New York metropolitan region informs and draws from the best available information, positioning residents and planners to confront expected future changes in the most effective way possible.”

The report will be used to improve the current and future resiliency of NYC communities, citywide systems and infrastructures. Additional topics covered in the report include public health concerns such as extreme heat conditions, coastal storms and flood modeling.

In coordination with the NPCC3 report, de Blasio also announced the launch of NPCC3, a subgroup that will look at the relation between climate risks and inequality on a neighborhood scale. “NPCC’s findings underscore the urgency of not only mitigating our contributions to climate change, but adapting our city to its risks,” he said. “The task at hand is daunting— and that is why we’re making an unprecedented commitment, with a sweeping plan to reduce emissions 80 percent by 2050, and a comprehensive, multi-layered resiliency plan that is already making neighborhoods safer. I’m grateful to the NPCC for their tireless work on this critical report, and look forward to partnering with NPCC3 as we continue to drive the science forward and ensure an even stronger, more sustainable, and more resilient New York City.”

The NPCC was founded in 2009 to study the effects of climate change on NYC’s five boroughs as well as the surrounding area. As part of the research team from the beginning, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies has been heavily involved in the panel’s work, using the GISS climate model in the report’s climate projections.