Authors

Aswad Hossein, Kelsey Knight, Zoe Tseng

Research Question

How can New Yorkers see what a major coastal protection system will do during a future storm, and understand the risks that remain? Working with NYC DEP and NYU, the project turns engineering flood-model outputs from the East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project into an interactive 3D experience.

Background

The East Side Coastal Resiliency project is a major coastal protection system for New York City. Its engineering flood models describe how the system performs, but those outputs are hard for the public to interpret. The project explores compelling ways to communicate how the system operates, whom and what it protects, and where residual risks remain.

Methodology

The project involves:

• Transforming ESCR flood-model outputs into an interactive 3D experience using GeoFlood Studio.
• Building a reproducible data pipeline.
• Verifying the platform against source-model results.
• Investigating how ESCR changes flooding across different storm scenarios.
• Exploring ways to communicate system operation, protection and residual risk.

Deliverables

• Scenario Analysis: A quantitative analysis of how ESCR changes flooding across storm scenarios.
• Technical Workflow: Documentation of the data pipeline and verification process.
• Recommendations: Guidance for future DEP and community applications.

Data Sources

• Engineering flood-model outputs from the East Side Coastal Resiliency project (NYC DEP)