Written by Richard Kampf, Gowanus Canal Conservancy

This is the second of two blog posts about the impacts of climate change on a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. Members of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy are taking a look at how sea level rise could impact a local canal. Click here to read the first post.

We proceeded south to the historic Carroll Street Bridge, built in 1888-89. The bridges and bulkhead of the Gowanus Canal are key components of the infrastructure that may be affected by sea level rise. As part of a pilot study, the city plans to install to High Level Storm Sewers to capture 50% of the rainfall before it enters the sewer pipes, and instead divert it directly into the Canal to reduce CSOs and street flooding.

The Conservancy encourages students from local primary and secondary schools and colleges to use the canal as a laboratory for studying the natural environment. Here, at the end of Second Street, the Gowanus Dredgers Boat Launch provides the community with the recreational resources to directly experience the ecosystem of the canal.

At the Third Street Bridge we discussed a proposed waterfront development within the 100-year flood zone and note the variety of concrete, wooden, and sheet pile bulkheads that are common along the Canal. Ecologists, landscape architects and engineers envision opportunities for creating softer shorelines and constructed wetlands in an effort to provide public access, improve water quality, and adapt to sea level rise.

The Conservancy is working to implement a waterfront “Sponge Park”^TM that will help the City achieve its goals for increasing public access, improving water quality, restoring ecological habitats, and promoting climate resilience and adaptability. A Sponge Park^TM is a conceptual approach to “softening” the shoreline by introducing a habitat for a variety of grasses, plants, oysters, mussels and other organisms which serve an ecological function.

Below you’ll find pictures of the canal shoreline as it appears today, followed by an artist’s rendering of the Sponge Park.^TM

Next, we entered the 6th Street Corridor. As part of its Green Infrastructure Plan, the city is overseeing the installation of permeable pavement, tree pits, rain gardens, and green roofs rather than costly pipes and tanks, in an effort to reduce runoff, urban street flooding and CSOs. As part of the Conservancy’s 6th Street Corridor Pilot Study, we are installing a series of rain gardens that will line the sidewalks and reduce the number of CSO events at the Second Avenue outfall.

We concluded our tour at 1 p.m. at the Second Avenue Salt Lot, the Conservancy’s staging area for community engagement, where we observed a street-end rain garden created during one of our “clean & green” volunteer events. From here, the Conservancy coordinates its watershed stewardship activities, which include raising awareness to help ensure that ongoing and future planning initiatives consider the potential effects of climate change. This is also the location of our growing composting and urban agriculture program.

The Conservancy believes that a community-based watershed planning perspective will be a key to proper long-term stewardship. We are promoting integrated decision-making to support incremental, flexible, and robust solutions that do not preclude adaptability, and we are working to establish the link between the watershed, CSOs, and climate change through long-term data collection, management, and analysis that is needed to properly plan for the future.

To find out more about the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, visit their website.

MORE LIKE THIS: Expedition // Feature // Local Action // Sea Level Rise