The Resilient Coastal Communities Project seeks to foster actionable, equitable solutions to flood risks along with complementary benefits like habitat restoration, job creation and more empowered communities.
The urgent need to address the growing risk of storm- and sea level rise-driven flooding, locally and around the world, led the Climate School to make coastal resilience one of its first four transdisciplinary initiatives. Here in the New York metropolitan area, this initiative will be served by a new Resilient Coastal Communities Project (RCCP), under the auspices of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD), working in partnership with the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. The RCCP’s principal goal will be to foster new collaborations between practitioners and researchers, as envisioned in Columbia’s Task Force Report on Directed Action, to help develop actionable, fundable, and equitable solutions to flood risks that also deliver complementary benefits, like habitat restoration, job creation and greater community cohesion and help maintain the Climate School’s commitment to fairness, social justice - and anti-racism.
The RCCP aims to address the challenges of coastal resilience through a combination of iterative engaged scientific research, community engagement and innovation; academic and clinical support for enhanced community participation in public planning; communications initiatives to build public awareness and support effective action; classroom instruction; and workshops, conferences & other convenings.
In short, the job of the Resilient Coastal Communities Project is to support learning and foster effective solutions, developed in partnership with frontline communities, governments and other stakeholders, to climate-related threats.
More Information can be found at The Resilient Coastal Communities Project (CSUD)
Contact: Paul Gallay, Project Director pag57@columbia.edu
The Resilient Coastal Communities Team
This project will bring together a distinguished interdisciplinary team with a track record of engaged research, policy impact and commitment to environmental justice. The project would be anchored within the Center for Sustainable Urban Development within Columbia’s new Climate School and would bring together diverse researchers with needed expertise from across the university.
Paul Gallay, Project Leader & Senior Research Associate, Center for Sustainable Urban Development. Faculty member, Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development.
Jacqueline M Klopp, Co-Director, Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD) Faculty member, Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development.
Annel Hernandez, Lecturer in International and Public Affairs, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.
Victoria Sanders, Research Analyst, New York City Environmental Justice Alliance.
Klaus Jacob, Special Research Scientist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO).
Joyce Klein-Rosenthal, CSUD adviser. Faculty member, Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development.
Radley Horton, Lamont Research Professor, LDEO. Faculty member, Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development.
Lexi Scanlon, Graduate Research Assistant. Candidate, Masters in Climate and Society.
Advisory Board
Erica Avrami, James Marston Fitch Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation, Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP).
Jacqueline Austermann, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DEES).
Christian V. Braneon, Co-Director, Environmental Justice/Climate Just Cities Network.
Michael Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia Law School.
Joachim Goes, Lamont Research Professor, LDEO. Karenna Gore, Founding Director, Center for Earth Ethics, Union Theological Seminary.
Nilda Mesa, Director, Urban Sustainability and Equity Planning Program, CSUD.
Walter Meyer, Principal Urban Designer, Local Office Landscape Architects.
Kate Orff, Professor & Director, Urban Design Program, GSAPP. Faculty Director, Center for Resilient Cities & Landscapes, GSAPP.
Thaddeus Pawlowski, Managing Director, Center for Resilient Cities & Landscapes, GSAPP.
Dorothy Peteet, Adjunct Senior Research Scientist, LDEO. Adjunct Professor, DEES.
Maureen E. Raymo, Co-Founding Dean, Columbia Climate School (CCS). Director, LDEO.
Andrew Revkin, Director, Initiative on Communication Innovation and Impact, CCS.
John Scialdone, Senior Staff Associate, Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).
Adam Sobel, Professor of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics and of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia School of Engineering.
Margie Turrin, Senior Staff Associate, LDEO.
Beizhan Yan, Lamont Associate Research Professor, LDEO.
Dan Zarrilli, Special Advisor on Climate and Sustainability, Columbia University.
Partners and Supporters
The Resilient Coastal Communities Project seeks to unite what are now very disparate efforts to foster better coastal resilience planning through a more collaborative approach to research, curriculum, policymaking and project development. Of central importance to any such work is a more successful and intentional approach to community empowerment, equity, inclusion and justice. As such, strong, catalytic partnerships with and support from the following NGOs, whose core missions relate directly to healthy waterfront communities and ecosystems, is essential to the success of this project.
With Thanks to RCCP’s Funders
- Dextra Baldwin McGonagle Foundation
- Donald C. Brace Foundation
- LE4 Foundation
- Columbia Climate School
- Sanjya Tidke