LIVING BREAKWATERS

Staten Island, NY, USA
SCAPE

The Living Breakwaters project is led by landscape architecture firm SCAPE, alongside several ocean and coastal scientists and consultants, and implemented by the New York State Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery. The project is focused around Tottenville, a community on the south shore of Staten Island, where dredging and the diminishing of oyster reefs contributed to significant and severe erosion during Hurricane Sandy. The town is expected to continue to lose acreage to erosion in the face of sea level rise and storm surge. The proposal was based on simulations that suggested breakwaters would have reduced wave heights by four feet during Hurricane Sandy, which would have limited the damage to the coastline. Instead of reducing access to the water with levees or sea walls, the living breakwaters are a “necklace” of breakwaters and submerged constructed oyster reefs that diminish wave action. The living infrastructure buffer neighborhoods while creating areas of increased biodiverse habitat for marine and coastal species. The proposal was designed in concert with the community of Tottenville through interactive design workshops, shorewalks and beach cleanups, and was proposed to amplify ongoing resilience initiatives of coastal dune planting and community reconstruction. In addition, the project is partnered with other New York regional initiatives, including the Billion Oyster Project and the New York Harbor School. The proposal was awarded $60 million for the pilot project.

2013 - 2014
265 acres
76 feet above sea level

References:

Links: