NYC Community Flood Watch Project

In the past decade, residents in low-lying neighborhoods around Jamaica Bay started noticing that high tides were regularly flooding streets that used to stay dry.

Water level measurements provided even more evidence to explain the phenomenon. With sea-level rise, high tides were getting higher - high enough to occasionally flood streets even on sunny days. That trend is expected to continue. Without intervention, future high tide flooding in NYC will be more frequent and widespread ( NPCC, 2019 ).

The Community Flood Watch Project, aka "Flood Watch," began as a way to gather and share standardized information about street-level flooding in New York City.

Flood Watch is coordinated by the  Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay  and  New York Sea Grant , with support from the  Mayor's Office of Resiliency.  Work is done in partnership with community-based organizations throughout Jamaica Bay, Coney Island and the Bronx.

Flood Watch is more than flood reports. It is founded on the idea that community resilience can be built through the active exchange of knowledge between residents, researchers, and governments.

Residents know more than anyone else about the flooding in their neighborhoods. Scientists (including those at the National Weather Service) can use local knowledge to better understand flood dynamics and to improve forecasts and models. Governments can use local knowledge to make decisions about budgets, policies, and projects.

With more complete datasets of local flooding knowledge, scientists can provide more accurate information and governments can make more informed decisions. Perhaps more importantly, communication between these three players will build new social networks.

This section provides examples of how Flood Watch currently works and highlights some of the data collected so far.

The  National Weather Service  has issued a Coastal Storm advisory for the entire region, and the Stevens Flood Advisory System is predicting minor to moderate flooding at certain stations around Jamaica Bay.

As people hunker down for the storm, the Flood Watch Coordinator sends out an email alert describing the high tide times and expected flood levels. As of yet, no one knows exactly how bad the flooding will be, which streets will be affected, and how long it will last. The snowfall is added layer of complication. So, we wait as photos start streaming in through  Facebook , email, and the  Community Flood Watch Reporting Tool .

With the new moon on Nov. 15, high tides are higher than normal due to the combined gravitational pull of the moon and the sun.  The wind is 14 mph from the West in the morning, but in the evening there are gusts up to 30 mph from the Northwest. Otherwise, it's a sunny day - there was no precipitation recorded at JFK Airport. 

In May 2020, Flood Watch launched a new reporting tool using Survey123 to collect critical flood information.

The following slideshow describes the data collected as of February 2021.

The future of Flood Watch depends on the participation and feedback of residents and community groups. By continuing to further the exchange of information between communities, researchers, and governments, we hope to apply Flood Watch data and partnerships such that:

• Flood Watch is a locus of communication and information sharing.
• Local flood data and alerts help residents and cities prepare for flood events.
• Local flood data inspire action.

Email FloodWatchNYC@srijb.org for questions, feedback, or to stay in touch for future communication about the Community Flood Watch Project.