ADVANCES
16 Scientific American, May 2019 Illustration by Emily CooperNJNYStaten
IslandProposed breakwatersWave directionan associate at landscape architecture firm
SCAPE, which designed Living Breakwa-
ters along with a team of engineers and
ecologists. Sandy underscored why this
kind of ecological degradation is so prob-
lematic—the storm hit Tottenville with
some of the most powerful waves in
the region, causing fatalities and knocking
houses off their foundations.
The New York Governor’s Office of
Storm Recovery plans to begin building
a 3,200-foot array of nine separate barri-
ers, or “breakwaters,” as early as this sum-
mer. Each has a stone trunk that sits partly
underwater, between 730 to 1,200 feet
offshore. The barriers are designed to dis-sipate wave energy ( graphic ). Five of them
are meant to keep waves under three feet
high during a “100-year storm”—an event
that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in
a given year—in a scenario with 30 inches
of sea-level rise. The other four breakwa-
ters will protect against erosion and atten-
uate waves during smaller storms.
During a storm, “you’ll see waves break-
ing onto the breakwaters themselves, but
you’ll also see waves come through the gaps
[between the barriers],” explains Joe Mar-
rone, an engineer at design and consultancy
firm Arcadis, who is working with SCAPE
on the project. “As they come through the
gaps, they spread out, and the height of the
waves is reduced,” he says. “So you’ll still see
wave action at the shoreline, but there will
be significantly smaller waves.”
By reducing the amount of wave ener-gy pounding the shore, the breakwaters
should slow erosion and leave more sedi-
ment to help build the beach. The gaps
between the barriers are meant to allow
some natural sediment to migrate and to
let the system flush itself out.
Most of the structures will feature fin-
gerlike ridges jutting into the ocean to pro-vide habitat for fish and other aquatic ani-
mals. “The idea is to try to structurally mim-
ic naturally occurring reef formations,”
Howe says. The breakwaters will incorpo-
rate materials that will help support marine
life, and a group called the Billion Oyster
Project plans to install the bivalves on and
around the barriers.
The Living Breakwaters will also include
a “floating water hub”—a boat that will
serve as an educational space, giving com-
munity members and students access to
the breakwaters. “It’s about fostering this
idea of social resilience, connecting people
who live in the community back to the
shoreline,” Howe says.
Other places are also trying to build in
cooperation with nature—rather than sim-
ply trying to hold it back—as they adapt to
climate change. The Dutch city of Rotter-dam has built “green,” vegetation-covered
roofs to absorb rainfall and a public plaza
that also serves as a stormwater basin.
Norfolk, Va., has developed a strategy to
protect some areas from sea-level rise and
coastal storms and to withdraw from oth-
ers. “Even under the current U.S. national
[political] climate, there are things happen-
ing,” says Phil Berke, a professor of land
use and environmental planning at Texas
A&M University. “Cities like New York City,
Miami, Norfolk and others are doing this on
their own.”
Some experts have concerns, however.
“Certainly incorporating green aspects
makes [projects such as Living Breakwa-
ters] more resilient,” says Katherine Greig,
senior fellow at the University of Pennsyl-
vania’s Wharton Risk Management and
Decision Processes Center. “But the notion
that that’s going to be the answer is trou-
bling to me. Does it give people in those
neighborhoods a false sense of security
about what their risk is? Are the most vul-
nerable people going to be protected be -
hind these infrastructure investments?”
SCAPE, however, says it has worked to
address such concerns: “Our design team,
along with the Governor’s Office of Storm
Recovery, has made a continued effort to
engage and educate the community of Tot-
tenville about the risks they face now and in
the future and about how the Living Break-
waters reduce some of that risk but do not
eliminate all risk.” — Annie SneedThe Living Breakwaters will consist of an array of nine barriers off the coast
of Staten Island. During a storm, the breakwaters will dissipate wave energy directly
(during impact) and indirectly (as waves pass through the gaps and spread out),
resulting in smaller waves at the shore.“You’ll still see wave action at the shoreline,
but there will be significantly smaller waves.”
—Joe Marrone, Arcadis engineer© 2019 Scientific American