Communities Becoming Resilient Together

The Hudson River Flood Resilience Network is a group of riverfront communities working together to address their current and future flood risks

Image of people posing for photo by waterfrontPeople along the Hudson River have seen more flooding and extreme storms over the past decade than any other time in recent memory.

According to New York State official projections, the mid-Hudson region could experience as much as six feet of sea-level rise by 2100, creating high-tide flooding and permanent inundation of waterfront locations. 

The Flood Resilience Network is a pathway to tackling this looming challenge by connecting riverfront communities to flood resilience resources and to peers in other communities. In 2022, the Flood Resilience Network is engaged in a strategic roadmap process to identify current opportunities and needs to set the direction for the next stage of the Network’s work.

The effort started in 2015 as a collaboration between the riverfront communities of Kingston, Piermont, and Catskill after these municipalities completed waterfront vulnerability assessments and resilience plans. Since then, additional riverfront communities have joined the network.  The Flood Resilience Network is supported by the Hudson River Estuary Program with municipal partners, Hudson River Watershed Alliance, NY Sea Grant, Consensus Building Institute, and Scenic Hudson.

The Flood Resilience Network connects waterfront communities with experts, programs and resources:Image of people listening to someone discussing a water body

     What have Flood Resilience Network communities accomplished?

People standing in a group listening to a man speak

  • In just a few short years, participating communities have received more than $7 million in grants for resilience projects
  • Upgraded critical infrastructure such as wastewater treatment plants and waterfront access roads
  • Produced and distributed flood preparedness guides for residents and businesses
  • Operated a neighbor-to-neighbor emergency response network
  • Established or updated a Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan
  • Become a certified Climate Smart Community
  • Hosted the Climate-adaptive Design studio, where Cornell University students create flood resilient waterfront designs

 

The Flood Resilience Network supports members by providing peer-to-peer learning opportunities on topics such as:

Community HighlightImage of a wetland

The Village of Piermont’s Neighbor 2 Neighbor program

The Neighbor 2 Neighbor (N2N) program was established by the Piermont Waterfront Resiliency Commission to provide support for vulnerable community members during a flood.  Residents can register if they feel they need help or if they’d like to volunteer to check on neighbors during an emergency. 

A community network like N2N can help strengthen communities during a flood or even a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more, read this article about Piermont’s N2N.

To learn more about the origins of the Flood Resilience Network, read our published paper Working Together to Build Climate Resilience in Hudson Riverfront Communities, from the Springer Handbook of Climate Change Resilience. 

Visit the Hudson Valley Climate-adaptive Communities YouTube page to watch the Flood Resilience Network Lunch n' Learn video playlist.