Project by Stephanie Heggli-Nonay
Cloudbursts—extreme rainfall events that deliver intense precipitation in short periods—are occurring with increasing frequency and intensity due to climate change in New York City. Floodable parks, parks that temporarily absorb and detain water, are a potential solution for NYC to increase its resilience to cloudbursts without the decades and billions of dollars required to rebuild the city’s entire drainage system. The “Sponge City” project uses geographic information data, combining flood, social, and critical infrastructure vulnerability, to propose existing NYC parks that could be repurposed as floodable parks to protect nearby communities.
