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When the remnants of Hurricane Ida hit New York City in September 2021, torrential rains flooded the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) in Queens. While making extensive repairs, the organization called in our resilience specialists to prevent substantial damages from happening again.
Our team, led by Vice President Aditya Bhagath, started with climate-hazard and stormwater assessments. A hydrological analysis of the watershed revealed that NYSCI’s front door is at a low point within the neighborhood. These findings informed short-term measures, like relocating the primary entrance, that would protect NYSCI while other flood resilience solutions were developed. The predicted water volume and associated depths also guided our design of a semipermanent flood-barrier system.
NYSCI is considering long-term measures, such as landscaping to divert floodwaters, permanent exterior flood barriers and flood-proofing for operations-critical rooms. These strategies factor in scientific data forecasting increasingly severe weather events fueled by climate change.
The current flood-barrier system had its first real test during a cloudburst event in April 2023. It kept the water out, and NYSCI stayed dry.