Harbor and Tributaries Study

Managing Coastal Resilience

In September 2022, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released their NY-NJ Harbor and Tributaries Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Study (HATS). HATS reviews five alternatives that USACE created, evaluated, and compared in the previous phase of their analysis. From those 5 alternatives, USACE tentatively selected Alternative 3B, which includes on-land barriers measures and 12 in-water storm surge gates across NYC’s tributaries, including Flushing Creek.

This interactive map of the project visually details the Army Corps’ various alternatives—everything in fuchsia is part of their proposed 3B plan.

Since USACE's previous study's mandate was to address storm surge, USACE's study over-relies on massive in-water storm surge gates for protection and does not adequately study or model natural and nature-based features (NNBFs), such as berms, dunes and inland green infrastructure utilized to protect neighborhoods and mitigate flooding.

While USACE has renewed its commitment to NNBFs, a lack of consideration of NNBFs in the previous process has resulted in a suite of alternatives that over-rely on in-water barriers and underweight NNBFs, which have lots of benefits for our social and ecological communities. The existing alternatives are, therefore, inherently flawed because these important considerations were initially underweighted, and options that may have prioritized NNBFs have already been eliminated.

Urban Tributaries Working Group

Bronx River Alliance

Coney Island Beautification Project

Gowanus Canal Conservancy

Guardians of Flushing Bay

Hackensack Riverkeeper

Read our joint comments here to learn more about our four key concerns and five recommendations for USACE.

Past Workshops

GoFB hosted two comment-writing workshops to discuss the Working Groups’ key concerns and recommendations for the Army Corps' proposal.

Watch the Recording Here