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11/18/12

Flood Control: How Dutch innovations could prevent Sandy-type flooding in New York - by Jason Sheftell

How can we prevent this from happening again?

That’s the question on the lips of those from New York’s hardest-hit streets. City architects and officials have been trying to answer that question and consider ways to protect New York from another storm of Sandy’s magnitude since her waters receded.

Jackson Heights-based architect Haiko Cornelissen grew up below sea level in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He took note as his country employed flood-prevention measures in harbors, along the coastline and in various housing styles constructed specifically to survive water disasters.
Acting fast after Sandy, Cornelissen has set up the website NL4US.com, which offers safe and sustainable solutions for rebuilding in flood-prone areas in the United States.

Concepts including amphibious houses and anti-flood systems around bridges are described in detail. Speaking to engineers in his home country, the architect considered cost, time, building codes and location before lending his thoughts.

The Dutch government took a bold step in the 1950s to preserve the Netherlands’ southern end with an unprecedented flood protecting infrastructure called Delta Works.

Based on the Dutch example, the Storm Surge Research Group at Stony Brook recommended in 2004 to use a similar solution with movable barriers around the New York Harbor, including under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

“Thinking along these lines, I combined the Verrazano with the Maeslantkering, a barrier that protects Rotterdam, the busiest harbor of Europe," Cornelissen says. “The Maeslantkering completed the Delta Works after four decades of building the complete flood-protection infrastructure. The area has not flooded since.

“While the Bloomberg administration has aggressively promoted waterfront development in the city, the New York waterfronts are now the areas hit hardest by the recent storms,” says the architect.

“Therefore one alternative to promote waterfront development is to use floating houses as seen in new parts of Amsterdam.”

Read more: How Dutch innovations could prevent Sandy-type flooding in New York - NY Daily News

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