The diverse group of college and graduate students who make up the 2023 Waterfront Scholars cohort are invited to a special breakfast to meet with with Waterfront Alliance leadership and begin your journey at the Conference.
This high-level panel explores the current state of federal legislation, the distribution of funding to states, the role of the states, how funding makes its way to sustainability, renewable energy, and resilience projects and local communities, and what to look for in the years ahead. Continuing the discussion from last spring’s Waterfront Conference on federal funding, speakers will cover the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Justice40, the Inflation Reduction Act, New York and New Jersey State funding, and other federal programs.
Displacement and migration due to climate impacts are now commonplace. Hurricane Ian and other recent major events have laid bare the need for national, holistic policy for relocation that is forced upon communities by climate change. This panel explores the role affordable housing must play in relocation and climate migration as part of the country’s growing response to climate change. Failed comprehensive planning can result in furthering housing disparities, loss of personal assets, homelessness, and speculative real estate development after disaster. Speakers explore these challenges along with solutions that can advance through national and state-level housing policy.
Join a discussion and conversation that orients us to the players, locations, planning, construction, and timelines for the offshore wind deployment underway in New York and New Jersey. Along with the basics of the field, questions speakers will cover include: who are all the developers? What are New York State and New Jersey doing with the industry now? What will be built and when? Who is partnered with whom?
From offshore wind investments to flood risk disclosure laws and climate education mandates, New Jersey is leading the nation’s response to climate change. This panel examines the state’s recent laws, policies, and investments, and discusses what it means both for the future of the state and as a model for the rest of the country. What are the political and environmental reasons for New Jersey’s progress? What was the role of the advocacy community and what must be done to maintain and grow commitments? Is New Jersey a catalyst for national standards and how do we grow momentum?
The maritime and shipping industries face a challenge in determining where to first invest in decarbonizing operations to meet the International Maritime Organization’s goal of significantly cutting greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping. From electrifying fleets to alternative fuels, the industry has multiple options. This panel covers the investments needed and those taking shape in the most promising technology that will be possible within the next five to ten years.
Social media plays a rarely explored role in communications that occur to and within communities facing neighborhood-scale changes from infrastructure projects. This panel discusses social media as both a driver of support and of opposition, and the ways project practitioners can manage and address its power and drawbacks. Changes in the use of Twitter will be addressed as well as the role of social media in crisis communications.
The Heather M. Morgan Climate Risk Adaptation Lecture honors the memory of Heather Morgan, noted climate risk adaptation expert, and her contributions to the field of sustainability. Heather dedicated her career to redefining the relationship between our human inhabitation and the natural system utilizing a transdisciplinary approach. She used her formidable oratory skills to educate people and empower them to advocate for their communities because she felt that unless people understood the dynamic, there would be no real progress. Heather was herself a force of nature who brought boundless energy, genuine integrity, and limitless passion to her work.
The Lecture series is supported by an endowed fund in order to bring top speakers to the Waterfront Conference. Fund supporters are:
Premier Corporate Sponsor AECOM
$10,000 and above Battery Park City Authority J.M. Kaplan Fund
$5,000 – $9,999 SiteWorks Landscape Architecture
$1,000 – $4,999 Nora Madonick, CEO, Arch Street Communications Biohabitats
Up to $999 Susan Ainsworth Nanci Bateman Pierre Boucicaut Emory G. Lee Craig McCaw Kate McLetchie-Sheldon Morgan Landscape Group Jackie Snyder Marc Tuozzolo
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ NY & NJ Harbor & Tributaries Focus Area Feasibility Study (HATS), designed to ensure comprehensive solutions to historic flooding, has been met with both enthusiasm and consternation. This discussion considers what the region might realistically expect from the Army Corps of Engineers, both states, and New York City for HATS funding, implementation, and execution of projects. What are the right planning projections? How do we justify billions in investment that may not protect us before 2040 or 2050? Among the focal points for discussion are timelines, costs, state and federal processes, and other non-project, non-technical aspects of the study.
The ocean can be a crowded place. A home for marine mammals, fish, and shellfish, as well as human infrastructure—our oceans are a key to our future and the future of the planet. The environmental impacts of offshore wind farms on habitats, aquatic life, and birds has been a subject of research and analysis focused on determining the role of offshore wind in ocean systems and wildlife. This panel reviews the potential impacts to animal life and ecology, current environmental research, biodiversity metrics, and opportunities to mitigate impacts.
Plastic use has increased dramatically over the past twenty years. The United States is one of the world's largest consumers of plastics and produces more plastic waste than any other country. Plastic bag bans in New York and New Jersey are steps in the right direction, but more is required at the local, state, and federal levels to tackle this monumental issue. This panel will discuss the problems and solutions at the local level and explore efforts from around the nation and the world that can serve as examples of a path toward comprehensive regional solutions.
Years of deferred maintenance on the historic piers and wharves in the New York–New Jersey harbor are translating into billions of dollars needed to keep land-based port operations at current levels. Adding the impacts climate change will have on existing infrastructure, the infrastructure price tag for Port of New York and New Jersey is staggering. How will the Port Authority and governments in both states rise to meet this challenge? What will be required of the private sector and what policies and priorities must be addressed by both states for a sustainable future?
The full menu of methods for informing communities and obtaining public input is vast, yet many continue to rely on the use of public meetings or open houses as the primary tool for public participation. What is the full menu of tools for involving communities, soliciting information, gathering input, and building trust? What else is needed to make sure methods go beyond the public meeting model? What methods are most equitable and what are the costs and implications of a wider range of commitments to other methods by project sponsors?
Community groups and design professionals are sounding the alarm about roadblocks within the waterfront permitting process of New York City and other jurisdictions. The importance of directly confronting the regulatory environment’s effects on waterfront and coastal permitting is greater now than ever. Given the scale and dimensions of the green, climate-resilient infrastructure needed in frontline and waterfront communities this is a timely discussion. Stakeholders point to the lack of flexibility for innovative design, permit review times, disincentives for innovation, and the complexity of permitting public access projects. This panel takes a hard look at the current system and opens a strong discussion on options for reform that prevent backsliding.
Much of the offshore wind workforce development effort has been focused on high-volume roles in construction and technicians. Yet it is clear gaps have emerged in permitting, planning, and engineering. This session considers questions such as: What are the pre-construction gaps in employment affecting both government and industry? What is the role of colleges and how can college programs better prepare white collar graduates for the offshore wind industry? How do you create a bridge between training programs and hiring?
The bivalve we hear the least about is the mighty mussel, a filter feeder competing with the oyster for the charismatic spotlight in the quest to restore the New York–New Jersey harbor. While the oyster is a major and important player, mussels also provide great ecological benefits and could be put to the great harbor restoration task. This panel looks at the opportunity for mussels as a major part of restoration initiatives and the research currently underway.
Truck congestion near port terminals, as well as on roads, bridges, and in neighborhoods is reaching a crisis point. With new local legislation proposed to curb neighborhood truck traffic and the push to decrease the size of highways such as the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the time for comprehensive solutions, including waterborne ones, is here. This panel explores the impact of truck traffic on local communities, current and ongoing analysis of the problem of truck congestion, and the solutions proposed that need investment and prioritization by industry, government, and the Port Authority.
A wave of energetic resistance has been rising against key resilience projects and infrastructure development. Some projects have become mired in public controversy, with epithets such as NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) and BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone) thrown back and forth. These dynamics of community opposition present challenges for the future of climate-resilient infrastructure projects. As neighborhoods and communities face change, how can we steer the environmental movement to think creatively and innovatively about what our future communities need to look like? What are strategies that work for engagement processes experiencing resistance and hardship? How can projects that expect resistance prepare for it? How do design teams balance incorporating legitimate community concerns with misinformation? What has worked well and why?
Everybody is connected to climate resilience in some capacity, but very few work for advocacy organizations. We close the program with a focus on everything from practical tactics to technical expertise that can be put to use for climate advocacy outside of a professional role. What are basic mechanisms of advocacy that all citizens can do—even anonymously, if needed? What policies should people contact elected officials about? What volunteer opportunities exist with advocacy groups? What can agency officials, consultants, place-based NGOs, and others do to advocate for more climate resilience?
