BWRC Annual Conference: Sea Level Rise and Brooklyn’s Jamaica Bay Communities

Join us in-person or online for this year’s hybrid BWRC Annual Conference!

This year marks the ten-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, a time when many of the city’s coastal vulnerabilities became glaringly apparent. Since then New York has taken major strides in making the coastline more resilient, yet immediate and long-term risks associated with global climate change and sea-level rise remain. Recent research on sea-level rise outlines the possibility, some would say probability, of the inundation, by the end of the century, of vulnerable communities along the Brooklyn waterfront, especially those along Jamaica Bay.

This conference will explore those possibilities and the questions they raise: What is the science behind such sea-level rise predictions? How will sea-level rise impact the coast of Brooklyn? If it became necessary to initiate a strategic relocation, how would that be done? How could it be done equitably, and what would be the demographic, moral, economic, and social considerations that would factor into decisions? At what levels will our decisions about climate change be made?

Leading these explorations will be local officials, community activists, business leaders, scientists, and other academics.

PLEASE NOTE:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference will be hosted in a hybrid mode, with both online and in-person participants. Please choose how you’d like to participate when registering so that we can gauge and best accommodate in-person capacity.

Information for the online meeting will be emailed to all registrants. For on-site participants, there will be safety protocols in place, which may include building access requirement, on-site occupancy limit, mask wearing and social distancing. Please also note these protocols are subject to change based on updated safety precautions and best practices.