Climate Resilience News | Hudson River Estuary | September 2021

Climate Resilience in the Hudson River Estuary

Celebrating Climate Week 2021

In This Issue

• Spotlight on the Climate-adaptive Design Program
• Clean Energy Coordinators in the Hudson Valley
• Events
• NYS Climate Resilience Leadership
• News Roundup
• Local Weather Trends

Using Design to Inspire Change: A Spotlight on the Climate-adaptive Design Program

The Climate-adaptive Design Program is a three-phase process to inspire, advance and implement climate adaptation and resiliency projects in Hudson Riverfront communities.

Phase I: Inspiring change with the Climate-adaptive Design Studio
Outcome: concept designs

NEWS: City of Poughkeepsie to Serve as Host Community for Cornell University Climate Design Studio, September, 2021

The Climate-adaptive Design (CaD) Studio is a program led by Professor Josh Cerra, Cornell University Landscape Architecture Department, in partnership with the DEC Hudson River Estuary Program. The CaD Studio links Cornell University graduate and undergraduate students in landscape architecture with high flood-risk Hudson Riverfront communities to explore design alternatives for more climate-resilient and connected waterfront areas. Community stakeholders are engaged throughout the studio to help inform the design process and support more usable results for the municipality that the student design teams are partnered with. The purpose of this phase is to engage and inspire communities to adapt to our changing climate using natural and nature-based solutions.

• Watch a 5-minute video on the CaD Studio
• Visit our webpage on the CaD Studio
• View concept designs from previous CaD studios

Phase II: Advancing Climate-adaptive Design
Outcome: detailed and implementable project designs with cost estimates that are feasible and have community support

NEWS

• 2021 Phase II funding has been awarded to the Hudson Valley Collaborative in partnership with the City of Hudson and HDR in partnership with the Town and Village of Ossining, read more in the press release: DEC Announces $250,000 in Awards to Improve Climate Resiliency in the City of Hudson and Town and Village of Ossining
• Our completed Phase II project for Kingston Point Beach has received a 2021 Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects NY

Phase III: Implementing a Climate-adaptive Design (future concept)
Outcome: final design and construction of a climate adaptation and resiliency project

The Hudson River Estuary Program envisions the municipality or landowner implementing projects developed in Phase II, possibly with the help of funding from Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC), DEC, Department of State (DOS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other state or federal agencies.

• Visit our webpage Funding climate adaptation and resilience
• Learn about climate adaptation projects that have already been implemented on the Hudson: Sustainable Shorelines Case Studies: Demonstration Site Network and Scenic Hudson’s climate-adapted Long Dock Park in Beacon, NY

Clean Energy Coordinators in the Hudson Valley

The Hudson Valley Regional Council is the Mid-Hudson representative for the NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities (CEC) Program, serving Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Ulster and Westchester counties. They have just launched the Clean Energy Communities Institute to walk communities step-by-step through the CEC High-Impact Actions (one of which is becoming a certified Climate Smart Community) and how to accomplish them. They will present one High Impact Action each month, providing "action-oriented webinars, testimonials, in-person cohort-style workshops, and useful content."

The Capital District Regional Planning Commission is the representative for Albany, Columbia, Green, and Rensselaer counties. 

Contact for the Mid-Hudson CEC Coordinators

• Towns and villages in Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester Counties: Eleanor Peck at epeck@hudsonvalleyrc.org
• Towns and villages in Orange, Rockland, and Ulster Counties: Kat Carroll at kcarroll@hudsonvalleyrc.org

Contacts for the Capital District CEC Coordinators

• Jill Henck, Jill.Henck@cdrpc.org
• Tara Donadio, Tara.Donadio@cdrpc.org

Events

Hudson Dynamic Shorelines Story Map Collection

Virtual, 4 pm, September 22, 2021

Join New York Sea Grant for a webinar to introduce a  new educational resource for local officials and residents. At this 45-minute webinar you will be the first to receive links to this resource, learn how the resource was created, preview highlights, and ask questions. Register online

Hudson Valley Climate Solutions Week

October 17 - 24, 2021

Hudson Valley Climate Solutions Week is a regional collaboration to focus attention on the climate emergency we are all facing and the groundswell of creative work underway to address it. Organizations are invited to create special educational events that focus on climate solutions: a community forum, a skill building workshop, an art/music show, or a field experience — anything that educates and inspires. Sustainable Hudson Valley will coordinate and publicize dozens of events throughout the region, bringing together thousands of citizens and leaders to accelerate the work of reducing climate emissions and building the green economy. New events will be added to this website weekly so visit their website and sign up for updates.

2021 Annual Watershed Conference: Aligning Actions for Clean Water

October 25 - 28, 2021

This year's Hudson River Watershed Alliance conference will focus on watershed planning as a process and product to help build consensus and develop strategies that inform watershed management. The conference sessions will share processes, resources, and case studies for watershed-scale planning that leads to coordinated actions that improve clean water and reduce flooding. Each session will walk through the planning process: from setting goals and engaging stakeholders, to monitoring and modeling, to implementing actions. While we are focused on planning, the content will also be more broadly applicable to watershed work. Visit their website for more information.

NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program Annual Conference: Waterway Stories Water Quality, Access and Community

November 15 -18, 2021

Save the date! Members of the community, non-profits, academia, and local, state and federal government will be invited to talk about water quality and how it affects our lives and our community. How should we encourage equitable and safe waterfront access? How do we best communicate about risk? This event will highlight Harbor & Estuary Program’s commitment to bringing our communities to their waterways and our water up to the standards befitting our communities. 

Rx for Land Use Reform: Meeting the Challenge in a Time of Crisis

December 6 - 9, 2021

Land Use Law Center is pleased to announce the 20th annual Alfred B. DelBello Land Use and Sustainable Development Conference. Learn more on the event website.

NYS Climate Resilience Leadership

• Governor Kathy Hochul announced an exciting, new $6 million Climate Justice Fellowship program to train New Yorkers from priority populations & disadvantaged communities who are interested in climate justice and clean energy careers. The program will support 150 fellowships over three years and work with community-based organizations, universities, municipalities, climate tech startups and others to advance climate justice in disadvantaged communities across NYS.

• Governor Hochul Launches "Get There Green!" Campaign to Encourage Cleaner, Greener Transportation, encouraging New Yorkers to utilize a sustainable form of transportation for at least one trip during Climate Week 2021: September 20 - 26

• A New Era of Equity-Based Comprehensive Planning…Finally, Pace Land Use Law Center, September 10, 2021, "New York City’s 2019 comprehensive plan admits, 'The legacy of segregation and racist policies continues to cast a shadow over New York City,” and recognizes the plan provides “a unique opportunity to honor our history and reject injustice in order to build a strong and fair city for future generations.'" or "New York City, Denver, Seattle, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Portland, and Richmond are cities paving the way towards equitable comprehensive planning."

News Roundup

• Ida’s remnants struck idling front for historic deluge, Cornell Chronicle, September 8, 2021, "The storm prompted rivers and creeks to overflow, spawned tornadoes, and qualified as exceeding 500-year and 1,000-year rainfall events, according to Cornell’s NOAA Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC)"

• After Ida's fury, infrastructure key in preventing misery, Associated Press, September 5, 2021, "'Flash floods are now coming. It’s not waves off the ocean or the sound,' New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said... the increasing frequency and intensity of storms demand a new approach that factors in flash floods... The storm dumped so much rain so fast that a record 3 inches fell in an hour in New York Wednesday, overwhelming drainage systems. Some lives were lost when water flooded basement apartments, subway stations and vehicles. At least 50 people died in five northeastern states."

• Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis (AR6), International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), August 6, 2021, the first "mega" IPCC report released since 2013 includes these key takeaways: "scientists can now link specific weather events to human-made climate change... the Earth rewards good behavior: almost as soon as emissions cease, heating will cease and temperatures will stabilize in a couple of decades. But some effects—such as sea-level rise—will remain irreversible for centuries." You can explore climate projections for our region and sea-level rise and flooding mappers on our Cornell WRI website.

• New resource: Lead with Listening: A Guidebook for Community Conversations on Climate Migration, Climigration Network, August, 2021

• Risk Rating 2.0: Equity in Action, FEMA to "deliver rates that are actuarily sound, equitable, easier to understand and better reflect a property’s flood risk," new policies beginning Oct. 1, 2021 and remaining policies renewing on or after April 1, 2022, will be subject to the new rating methodology, beginning Oct. 1, existing policyholders eligible for renewal will be able to take advantage of immediate decreases in their premiums, download the NYS Summary (PDF)

• New resource: The Great American Climate Migration: A Roundtable Discussion by Grassroots Leaders (PDF), Anthropocene Alliance and the Climigration Network, August 31, 2021, "Even as they rushed to support Gulf Coast residents impacted by Hurricane Ida, an alliance of national grassroots leaders today issued a set of protocols to guide “The Great American Climate Migration”: The likely resettlement of some 30 million or more Americans over the next half century due to the impacts of climate change. Reeling from an avalanche of catastrophes — hurricanes, floods, excessive heat, drought and wildfire — the leaders are calling for greater state and federal consultation, coordination and commitment to disaster relief and mitigation."

• Climate change challenge: Terminology used by scientists confounds public, ScienceDaily, August 26, 2021, A new study finds that U.S. residents struggle to understand terms frequently used by scientists to describe climate change. Study participants offered helpful suggestions for improving climate language

Local Weather Trends from Mohonk Preserve's 125-year Weather Station

Temperature for June was 4.4°F above the 125-year average, marking this the 5th warmest June on record. Precipitation was 1.64 inches below average. There were 7 recorded days of measurable precipitation. You can check out the Mohonk Preserve weather data online for more information.

Please visit our website or email us at hvclimate@dec.ny.gov

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