WE Design worked with eDesign Dynamics and the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative to create a comprehensive stormwater management design guidelines and resilience plan. The plan integrates resiliency design into the Brooklyn Greenway, and serves as the spine for a larger stormwater management network.

The guidelines provide a coherent expression for Greenway development, while addressing a range of issues influencing urban coastlines. Fourteen miles of Brooklyn’s perimeter will be monumentally transformed by construction of a continuous bicycle and pedestrian corridor, creating the opportunity to address growing concerns about changing climate, rising sea levels, water quality, and coastal habitat enhancements. Large areas of Brooklyn were flooded by the storm surge generated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, just a year after Hurricane Irene brought heavy precipitation and floods caused by inland runoff from the east. The resilience plan addresses the challenge of protecting against both types of storm risks simultaneously: balancing the need to protect properties from storm surge and release stormwater from heavy rains.