Saving Working Waterfronts

On the night of September 1st, 2021, the remnants of Hurricane Ida inundated the communities around Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, dumping nearly 10 inches of rain on the tiny village of Warren.

Residents weren’t expecting catastrophic flooding from the storm, which had moved up the U.S. Eastern Seaboard after striking the Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane, one of the worst to ever hit Louisiana. But the community sits at an estuary—bounded by the Bay and two rivers—and the water found its way home. Local roads were flooded and partially collapsed, leaving businesses and homes along Child Street underwater. Floodwaters rushed down from surrounding hillsides into Market Street, turning it into a river.

However, this historic town is also one of the most low-lying—and most vulnerable to climate change—in the region. Hurricane Ida was not a record storm, but a warning of what’s to come. 

Local officials say the scale of Ida flooding now happens perhaps five or six days a year. In a warming world, that could increase to 150 days a year.

“That could be an everyday thing in 10 years,” said Bob Rulli, director of Warren’s Office of Planning and Community Development.

Just as concerning as the flood risk to streets, homes and businesses is a threat to the infrastructure we cannot see, Rulli said. Sea rise means underground utilities, such as water, sewer and gas lines, will be impacted even faster than what is above. Floods can knock out electricity, a major need, especially for vulnerable people who rely on power for oxygen tanks - and heat - during the cold winters. Electricity is also required for pump stations to function. The biggest sewer pump in Warren is located near Market Street, one of the areas most vulnerable to flooding.

The roads, meanwhile, are also evacuation routes. If they were to become impassable, people could be stranded without being able to get to a safe place or access the medical, and emergency services they might need.

Even before Hurricane Ida hit, Warren’s local government had reached a turning point in thinking about climate change in 2018. The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank funded a $2 million construction project to strengthen the town’s wastewater treatment plant, a major step toward both resiliency and improved water quality; the upgrade reduces nitrogen discharge into the Warren River. As town leaders and University of Rhode Island modelers discussed the importance of keeping the new plant safe amid sea rise and storms, they saw that the surrounding community needed resilience plans, too.

Leading the charge for these efforts alongside Rulli was town planner Kate Michaud. Born in Rhode Island and raised in Fall River, Massachusetts, Kate Michaud became the town manager of Warren in 2018, moving up after a stint as the town planner.

When she first began working with Rulli, her sucessor to the town planner position, on a long-term climate-adaptation plan, some citizens were skeptical about the possibility of moving away from the waterfront. After Ida, the conversation began to change.

Called the “Market to Metacom” plan, the adaptation strategy developed by Michaud and Rulli aims to move residents from vulnerable areas like Market Street neighborhoods to a safe redevelopment district, such as Metacom Avenue. Town leaders describe the adaptation plan as dynamic and feasible for people of all income levels.

The plan does not force people to move, Rulli said, but provides them with an alternative. If a family’s property or home is at grave risk, it offers an opportunity to stay in town and avoid displacement.

“I want to make sure that we have a program in place that disrupts their life as little as possible and creates the same price points for housing that they have now,” Rulli said.

The idea is for Warren to continue to grow and be a home to those who work in local businesses, buy local products and send children to local schools.

With a plan in place, Rulli and Michaud now face their biggest challenge yet: garnering public support.

People often worry about the costs of implementing green infrastructure or reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, Michaud points out that the cost to governments and taxpayers will be much less if they invest in protecting their communities. An often-overlooked aspect of climate change, she says, is the financial implication—the serious impact on local governments’ bottom lines.

"People don’t pay enough attention to what the cost of doing nothing is,” Michaud said.

Rulli points out that the risk is significant and near, but not immediate. He estimates that it should take 5-10 years. However, he hopes to educate citizens to understand their risk so they can proactively adapt before that time arrives.

This effort includes many, from town officials like Rulli and Michaud, to local artists like Linda Megathin who recently held a showcase in Warren featuring her artwork illustrating potential sea rise. It also includes college architecture students who have come to Warren to provide a fresh and youthful perspective on tackling the problems at hand.

"So I think as we continue to go forward, the more opportunities and the different ways we have to get to people, to educate them, to make them aware, the better,” Rulli said.

This spring, three student design teams from Syracuse University came to Rhode Island to take on the problems facing Warren from different innovative adaptive design perspectives. Their design studio, “If not, then” was a part of the Envision Resilience Narragansett Challenge which encouraged students from across the Eastern Seaboard to engage in a case study tackling climate problems in the Narragansett Bay area. Each group of Syracuse students focused on a different path to resilience, choosing either: protect and absorb; embrace and engage; or retreat and adapt.

Rulli said working with the Syracuse students and others during the Envision Resilience challenge was an opportunity to not only gain new ideas, but also a fresh perspective that may engage members of the community in the process of climate change adaptation in Warren who had previously been hesitant.

“These tools that the students come up with, that’s just another tool in my toolbox to tell that story,” Rulli said.

In addition to their different approaches to the challenge, the Syracuse teams also focused on three different high-risk areas in Warren.

As explained by Julia Czerniak, professor and Associate Dean of the Syracuse University School of Architecture and one of the two Syracuse faculty members leading the design studio, their challenge was this:

“Let’s rethink our world, not simply save it, as there are a lot of wrongs that can be addressed.”