On the coastal edges of the Bronx lies City Island, where the threat of flooding looms large with every forecast of heavy rain. As storm clouds gather on the horizon, so does the apprehension of City Island residents. Questions hang in the air—will the streets be submerged? Will property be damaged? Will the one access point, a single-lane two-way bridge, become flooded and disrupt commutes? For many residents of City Island, these aren’t mere possibilities but recurring realities. Each downpour brings a certainty of challenges, highlighting a community grappling with the relentless effects of climate change and historic disinvestment.
Residents in City Island and similar flood-prone areas are well-versed in the patterns that accompany each storm, understanding the nuances through personal experience. As John Doyle of City Island Rising says, “Since early 2020, City Island Rising has collected almost 1500 photos of frequent flooding within our community and Pelham Bay Park. City Island, like most of the coastal communities in the Eastern Bronx, is a front-line community for climate change.”
Yet like many flood-prone areas throughout the five boroughs, despite the consistent evidence of flooding (exacerbated by the climate crisis), significant action has yet to be taken. “Pelham Bay Park, despite being the largest park in the City of New York, continues to not receive its fair share of funding and improvements by the City. Unfortunately, thus far, the City hasn’t really taken action to address these conditions,” shares Mr. Doyle. However, in the realm of climate action, well-documented and irrefutable data carries the loudest voice.
This is where FloodNet steps in to bridge the gap between the observations of residents to the conclusive data needed to catalyze the involvement and decision-making of various key players, including policymakers and government entities. By installing low-cost, open-source flood sensors throughout flood-prone areas in the city, FloodNet has done something that no entity has been able to do before: create a set of real time metrics of the impacts of high precipitation events in these communities.
At its core, FloodNet is focused on amassing detailed data on the effects of street-level flooding, particularly in areas susceptible to the challenges posed by rising tides, storm surges, and excessive rainfall—which many, if not all, are in historically disinvested communities. It also serves as a vital safety tool, as residents can see flooding data in real time, informing decisions during flood events and allowing people to avoid hazardous areas.
Beyond its role in data collection, FloodNet has a Community Engagement Team that actively cultivates relationships with a diverse range of groups. “Developing and implementing our community engagement strategy from this space means leveraging a public health lens to ground our approach in both theory and practice for impact. I am using community-based participation research methodology and implementation frameworks to cement our community engagement strategy in its three prongs – community outreach, community education, and community action,” shares Véronëque Ignace, FloodNet’s Community Engagement Manager.
This includes collaborations with community coalitions, grassroots civic organizations, disaster preparedness volunteer groups, and even local urban agricultural initiatives. The insights gathered by FloodNet cater to a broad spectrum of local needs, allowing community partners to craft their unique response strategies. This process involves not only recognizing the specific ways flooding affects their area but also understanding the intersection of flooding with other pertinent issues impacting their community. The FloodNet team notes that their relationship with Mr. Doyle and City Island Rising has assisted them in selecting ideal locations for their flood sensors, which in turn increases the quality of the collected data and improves its utility for residents of City Island.
Alongside its robust community engagement efforts, FloodNet also features a partnership program called FloodWatch, spearheaded by the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay and New York Sea Grant. The initiative aims to compile a comprehensive public archive, primarily consisting of photographic documentation of flooding events. Utilizing the MyCoast online platform, the program can accurately geotag each photo submission. This process allows the pairing of these images with critical data, including tide stages and rainfall measurements, to enhance the understanding of flood dynamics in the area.
Nearby City Island in Locust Point, the Bronx, during a flooding event. Courtesy of John Doyle, City Island Rising
Representatives from FloodNet mention that the relationship between the two programs is complementary and goes hand-in-hand. Flood sensors only show one piece of a much larger and interconnected picture. “A flood sensor is an indicator that flooding is occurring in a neighborhood’s most flood prone locations. What does this mean for everywhere else? Sensors cannot show every area where flooding occurs; they monitor the places directly below them. Photos illustrate what it means for a community when flooding occurs: where it happens—beyond the sensor—how it’s changing, and what it looks like,” shares Ms. Ignace, along with colleagues Polly Pierone, FloodNet’s Project Manager, and Hannah Eisler Burnett, the Coastal Resilience Specialist at New York Sea Grant.
Conversely, FloodWatch played a pivotal role in the inception of the FloodNet initiative. According to the representatives from FloodNet, this collaboration stemmed from the participants’ expressed need for a more comprehensive flood monitoring system. They sought alternatives to solely photo-based reporting and emphasized the importance of having quantitative data. Such data would not only corroborate their experiences, but also serve as compelling evidence to those agencies controlling resources crucial for enhancing flood and climate resilience.
FloodNet is currently collaborating with various city agencies, who have started to utilize FloodNet’s data to make real-time judgements that help guide their response to flooding events. The NYC Department of Environmental Protection is a sponsor of the project, and additional city agencies that FloodNet is working with include NYC Emergency Management and Department of Transportation, to best determine how the collected data can be utilized during and after a flooding event, whether it’s borne from a storm or coastal flooding.
On City Island, and in other flood-prone communities, the hope is that the use of the data will go beyond responding to real-time events and drive municipal agencies to enact resilience initiatives that will foster real change. With the latest estimates from the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) forecasting that sea levels around the city will continue to rise—between half a foot and slightly over a foot in the 2030s—along with annual precipitation projected to increase by up to 10 percent in the next decade, the time for utilizing FloodNet’s data to guide climate resilience projects is timelier than ever. Reflects Mr. Doyle, “As others have said before ‘things that get measured are usually things that get addressed’.”
