The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP), the agency responsible for managing New York City's water supply and wastewater treatment systems, created an agency-wide Climate Change Task Force in 2004. The mission of the Task Force is to ensure that NYCDEP's strategic and capital planning efficiently take into account the potential effects of climate change—sea-level rise, higher temperature, increases in extreme events, and changing precipitation patterns—on NYC's water systems. In addition to its adaptation activities, the Task Force is developing a GHG management program, using GHG inventory software to support mitigation efforts.

The NYCDEP Task Force, in partnership with Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research (CCSR), is evaluating climate change forecasts, impacts, indicators, and adaptation and mitigation strategies to support agency decision-making. A comprehensive framework for analyzing climate change has been created, including a 7-step Adaptation Assessment procedure. Potential climate change adaptations are divided into management, infrastructure, and policy categories, and are assessed by their relevance in terms of climate change time-frame (immediate, interim, and long-term), the capital cycle, and costs and other impacts. A wide range of potential adaptations has been examined, including integrated operations with other systems, storm surge barriers for wastewater treatment plants, and new design criteria for infrastructure that reflect non-stationary hydrologic processes. Climate change indicators have been identified to help guide the timing of adaptations.

Task Force activities also include the development of downscaled climate change scenarios, the coordination of scientific projects to yield maximum benefit from research and development, and internal and external outreach through climate change workshops. For the NYC region, downscaled climate change scenarios are being simulated using the MM5 regional climate model. Mechanisms for updating these scenarios over time are being developed, using evolving climate information on trends and extremes provided by university scientists. As an example of science coordination, Columbia University is coordinating a multi-institution project that integrates scenarios of climate change and sea-level rise, hurricane and nor'easter storm-surge modeling and a digital elevation program to estimate flooding risks to coastal infrastructure. NYCDEP is also a member of the European Union CLIME project, helping to develop integrated regional climate and water quality models to study climate change issues in its watersheds. To support its ongoing programs, the Task Force meets monthly; it also engages NYCDEP personnel through climate change science and planning workshops.

Poster available in ppt format.

• Adapting New York City's Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment Systems to Climate Change (1.4 MB)

Abstract available in doc format.

• Managing Risk by Adapting to Climate Change: Planning for New York City's Water Supply, Sewer, and Wastewater Treatment Systems (32 KB)

The report, released in 2008 is available in pdf format from the city of New York website.

• The NYC DEP Climate Change Program Assessment and Action Plan (6.5 MB)