New York City’s waterfront resilience

Protecting against climate change through new marine building codes

To ensure that New York City waterfront structures are safe and resilient against sea level rise and storm surge, the city’s buildings department is looking at how to adapt waterfront building codes. Our team is developing a comprehensive waterfront development code and advising on how to set up a Waterfront marine administrative unit to enforce it.

Rewriting the rules to resist sea and storm

The newly established administrative unit will regulate the design, permitting, licensing, inspections, and enforcement activities for marine structures along the city’s 578-mile stretch of waterfront. We are tasked with shaping the waterfront codes to be complementary to and align with city, state, and federal laws, codes, and regulations that govern New York City’s waterfront.

Research-driven, outcomes-focused

To do this, our team is conducting extensive research into marine structure typologies and categorization, regulatory frameworks, comparable jurisdictions, existing national and international standards, site specific analyses, and construction and maintenance requirements. Based on this research, we will make draft code provisions and operational recommendations for edit, approval, and adoption by the city council.