New York Harbor Enhancement of Estuary and Ecological System Strategies
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Enhancement of Estuary and Strategies THE DEMANDS TO BE MET ARE MANY: THE POSSIBILITIES FOR CREATING A BETTER CITY ARE MANY: 1. Rising sea levels, temperature rise and increasing storm intensity due to climate change 6. Inspired, aesthetic and humane urban landscapes and garden environments Terraced Tidal Flats 2. More robust storm surges and coastal flood potential 7. Cultural, educational, and scientific facilities and study areas Ecological System at Sea Walls 3. Increased population in NYC needing the benefits of natural systems. 8. Increased recreational and traditional park areas 4. Increased need for soft path servicing, ecological treatment of wastewater and passive 9. General raising of the city’s profile as a place of urban ecological adaptation and climate Floating Wetlands water quality improvement methods. change mitigation in Tidal Shallows 5. Need for increased natural bio-diversity and re-establishment of wetland habitats. 10. Increased real estate possibility in previously under valued or contaminated areas 11. Less reliance of fossil fuel based water treatment and storm water management Upland Ecological 12. Increase desirability of small scale and diverse water based transportation options Restoration New York Harbor To transform the harbor and estuaries to meet the changing demands of the coming decades and to offer a richer and more ecologically integrated urban environment will require planning approaches that employ various strategies and support interventions at multiple scales. Ecological enhancement should be incremental and opportunistic, allowing for the testing of ideas and the development of different localized landscapes. Site- specific project developments will allow for the BUSHWICK INLET WHALE CREEK HALLEt’S COVE GRAND FERRY PARK verification of adaptability, efficiency, and performance for each type of proposed ecological system In the low lying land that defines the border The Whale Creek tributary was filled to East and opposite the northern tip of The Williamsburg Waterfront, between the improvements. between Greenpoint and Williamsburg is the provide land for petroleum industries seeking Roosevelt Island is a calm part of the east Bushwick Inlet and the Williamsburg Bridge, Bushwick Inlet, the only remaining feature of building sites along the Newtown Creek. The River know as Hallet’s cove. This natural is an industrial seawall. Where Grand Street The overall direction should be towards a stream that once meandered inland about Whale Creek that once flowed into a salt inlet just south of the Hell Gate is defined meets the shore however, the seawall is creating more articulated edge conditions, one mile, to the area around the present marsh, currently ends at the Newtown Creek and protected by the extension of land to broken by a small riprap section of boulders. more diverse biological zones and day McCarren Park. Many blocks within this Wastewater Treatment Plant. Restoration the north, Hallet’s point. The northern rocky While providing protection for the 1.6 acres improved habitats. Increased ecological area are post-industrial brown-fields. Inland of Whale Creek proposes to introduce shorelines were filled to expand the land of the Grand Ferry Park from the impact of complexity and the potential for restoration of this area proposes a park broad shallow pools bordering mudflats and area of Astoria. The proposal imagines tides, this rocky edge provides a coveted biological systems to thrive can also and wetland system organized around a marshlands placing a wetland system in island areas and near shore wetlands built direct connection with the East River. The provide the benefits of ecological winding stream and tidal flood plain carried proximity to a centralized wastewate r facility. of rock and earth platforms and through the conversion of riprap to coastal shoal and the servicing: storm surge protection, out without de-mapping the existing city The wetland would act as a supplemental excavation and shallow dredging of back- introduction of floating wetlands proposes a natural water filtration, stream street system, allowing the grid to continue filtration system, working to clean overflow, filled lands along the southwestern edge. limited conversion of hard parkland edge to flow stabilization and increased uninterrupted. urban run-off as well as a processed effluent a vegetated coastline. recreational, cultural and economic and be a visible symbol of integrated opportunities. infrastructure. Navigational Dredging Policy should be made to concentrate maritime industry and shipping at critical zones. The overall amount of channelization should be reduced to support functioning navigational routes and maintain active berths (with an allowance for expanding maritime activity as a transportation alternative.) Channelization and navigational dredging should incorporate environmental cleanup of contaminated waterways and not be maintained simply because it has been the historical prerogative. Historic Tidelands 1815 Tideland Conditions 2008 One Prize Registration #130 Terraced Tidal Flats at Sea Walls Upland Ecological Restoration Floating Wetlands in Tidal Shallows This Ecological restoration strategy calls for the re- Critical to wetland ecology is the diverse plant life that takes Strategies for upland ecological restoration propose to incrementally re- Upland development should also consider The floating bio-mat proposal envisions programming of some sections of the hardened shorelines. root therein. Most of these species are characteristically introduce fragments of the historic network of water-based natural systems the filling of water assets that are deemed a 21st century version of the ancient allowing for movement with the tides. In time, as the vegetation roots down, The continuous seawalls that once provided for deep-water able to thrive under the fluctuating salinity, water cycles and within the grid of the existing infrastructure. The near shore drainages of undesirable and not worth the commitment Mesoamerican Chinampa method of the system will force the accumulation of silt, and the anchored island, grow berths along much of the harbor have largely outlived their sediment deposits of the wetland. This tiered proposal in the New York harbor have endured the radical transformations that urban of scarce environmental funding resources. agricultural floating islands. Protected tidal the energy of the currents, builds estuarine inter-tidal marshlands. maritime industrial usefulness. These stone and concrete the Lower Hudson River would attempt to introduce more development, shipping and waterfront industries have imposed. Tranquil water The upper reaches of the Newtown Creek shallow areas outside the areas dredged structures created a simplified edge condition where water robust wetland species such as eelgrass, which can thrive features once occupied places like the Bushwick Creek, Newtown Creek and and the English kills are a Superfund site for navigation provide the opportunity One critical plant species to the proposed bio-mat is eelgrass, an and land have no inter-action, eliminating the critical near in the particular water cycle and climactic conditions of this Hallet’s Cove, all places where water met land at an indeterminate edge. that is best remediated, filled and converted for passive island making. The buoyant underwater plant able to tolerate brackish water and multiply in various shore habitats of the tidal wetlands. This proposed strategy location. This process necessitates experimentation, site- By cutting into the modern map of the city, lost indications of natural land to green space. The toxic legacy and the structural grids, filled with vegetated bio substrates and moderate range of lighting conditions. Eelgrass functions to involves building stepped tidal flats along sea walls that are specific phasing and close observation in order establish a and water forms could establish new possibilities for open space and urban limited exchange of water leave a stagnant mats, are secured with cables to submerged reduce erosion, stabilize sediment and remove nitrogen. no longer used for navigation. sustaining ecosystem. ecosystems. basin that offers little hope as a beneficial, anchors and stabilized with wooden piles, water-based environment. Tidal Low High Flats Marsh Marsh Predicted 2080 Water Level Aquatic Sheetpilling Vegetation Mean High Tide Vegetation Retaining Wall Along Drainage in Fabric Gridded Mat of Flotation Pontoons with Bio-Geo Textile Infill Drainage Path Fed Mean Sea Level by Grey water Mean Low Tide Roots Encourage Silting Below Mat Hudson River Articulated Edge Section Showing typical enhancement to existing seawall Section Showing typical enhancement to existing seawall Newtown Creek Infill Landscape Restoration of Little Hells Gate NEWTOWN CREEK LITTLE HELL GATE Detail of Hudson River Tidal Steps Hudson River Floating Island Oyster Bay Restoration Newtown Creek, the most extensive of the East River estuaries, was In 1934 Robert Moses ordered the area designated a Superfund site in 2010. The toxic legacy and the limited between Ward’s Island and Randall’s Island, HUDSON RIVER TIDAL STEPS HUDSON RIVER FLOATING ISLAND COMMUNIPAW COVE (OYSTER SALT MARSH) exchange of oxygen and water in the upper reaches and tributaries of the a channel known as the Little Hell Gate, Envisioned along the monumental sea wall of the Lower Newtown Creek leave a stagnant winding channel that offers little hope of filled to increase the area of playing fields The