A $72 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has launched a major project in New Jersey to address climate change issues through the ‘Building a Climate Ready NJ’ initiative, aiming to create resilient communities with enduring capacity to improve understanding of climate resilience.
Building a Climate-Resilient New Jersey
A $72 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has launched a major project in New Jersey, aimed at addressing issues such as flooding, habitat loss, and degraded water quality through the state’s “Building a Climate Ready NJ” initiative.
Key Partnerships and Objectives
The project brings together academic organizations, community-based groups, and other partners from around the state. The goal is to establish a resilience planning and project design pipeline that extends comprehensive, community-driven planning programs into new communities, bringing more disadvantaged and overburdened communities into the resilience cycle.
Under the grant, projects will be identified, designed, and in some cases, constructed with the end goal of improving state resilience to future issues caused by climate change. The initiative aims to “create something that’s enduring,” meaning that as these projects are being constructed and programs are being implemented, there is an enduring capacity to improve the understanding of climate resilience within the state.
Coastal Resilience Work
Research has shown that living shorelines are more resilient than traditional hard shoreline stabilization methods in protecting against the effects of hurricanes. Under this grant, experts from Stevens Institute of Technology will use their expertise and years of experience to work with the state and coastal communities to figure out where living shorelines might be appropriate and how they could improve the resilience of the communities.
In North Jersey, they will be working on a project at Liberty State Park in Jersey City and at a riverfront park in Little Ferry. The projects aim to improve public access to waterfront areas while restoring native habitats. In Little Ferry, the work has already had some preliminary design work, and the grant will cover the construction phase.
Traditional Green Infrastructure Projects
In addition to coastal resilience work, the grant covers more “traditional green infrastructure projects” such as rain gardens and bioswales. These projects are primarily implemented in urban communities, including Newark and Paterson, with the goal of improving stormwater management.
The project’s main intent is to implement various solutions in various environments, balancing ecological and societal benefits in terms of reduced vulnerability to climate change. Community partnerships will play a crucial role in developing these solutions, ensuring that they are effective and sustainable in the long term.
Long-Term Benefits
According to Miller, one of the key benefits of this project is its potential to reduce the financial burden of recovery after storms. By constructing more resilient communities, the state can save money on recovery efforts and instead reinvest those funds into further improvements.
Moreover, the project aims to integrate nature-based solutions with traditional engineering solutions, demonstrating how they can work together to create more resilient communities. This integrated approach will help reduce the loss of property and life potentially in storms, providing immeasurable benefits for the state’s residents and environment.
