Presentation from NY/NJ Metropolitan Storm Surge Working Group Conference, May 18, 2017

1. Evolution of Surge Barrier
Design
Options for a New York / New
Jersey Regional Storm Surge
Barrier
Dale Morris
Sr. Economist / Coordinator for Water
Royal Netherlands Embassy
Washington, DC
May 18, 2017

2. Water Mgmt and SLR in NL
59% of land is at or below sea level
70% of people live in, and 70% of GDP is
produced in, flood-prone areas
Adaptation easier: strong public will, and past flood
investments help w/ SLR challenge
IPCC SLR mid-level projections:
--8 inches by 2050
--33 inches by 2100

3. Deltacommissaris
Focus of past mitigation: shorten the coastline
3
300 à 45
km
750 à 50
km

4. Afsluitdijk: Enclosure Dam
1932: 20 miles long, 300 ft wide, 24 feet high, protects all Ijssel Lake communities (including
Amsterdam)
--Small navigation channel/lock, discharge sluices
--Major disruption to economic/cultural assets around brackish estuary. Became freshwater lake
--Useful life 100 yrs. Renovation: how to repair eco-damage? Fish Migration river, Blue Energy
(chemical) pilots…
2

5. Eastern Scheldt Barrier (5 miles)
Cost: $3.0b (1976-1986), $5b in 2010 $
O+M = $33m / yr
Closing: on average 1 – 2 x / yr
Partially Open, Redesign
Environmental Impacts
•Flow (saline gradient)
•Sediment balance
•Scour
•Biology / Water Quality

6. Maeslant Barrier
• Open, navigable. Minimal enviro impact.
• Massive (22m high, 210m long)
• Complicated design / operation: high water levels on
both sides during closures
• $700 m (1990-1997)
$1b 2010 $
• Closure design: 1/10 yr
• Closings: twice since 1997
• O + M = $12 - $15 m / yr
19-­05-­17
6

7. Thames Barrier
• 1972 – 1984, $2.6b (2016 $)
• Small-ish (520 m) closure. 6 navigable / 4 non
nav channels
• Design closure: 3x /yr. Actual closures: 4x yr
average. J
• O + M = ?
• SLR? Design life was 2030; extended to 2060.
19-­05-­17
7

8. IHNC Lake Borgne Barrier New Orleans
• $1.1 billion in 2011 (est. @ $800m)
• 1.8 mile static barrier, small navigable gates
• 2012 Isaac! $5billion in prevented damage…
• “easy” environment (shallow, low-flow,
already degraded ecosystem)
• O + M = $14m (who pays?)
• Rigolets / Chef Menteur?
19-­05-­17
8

9. IHNC
19-­05-­17
9

10. Ramspool Barrier
10
19-­05-­17
2001: 45 million euro
Protection against Ijssel Lake flooding (primarily wind driven)
Three 80-­meter air/water bladders
Design height 8.3m (11 ft NAP)

11. St Petersburg Barrier (Bay of Finland)
16 mile dam, two small navigation openings
$4 - $6b (high cost = long construction delays)
Improved road network
Heavy ecosystem damage
19-­05-­17
11

12. Venice Lagoon “Mose” Barrier
5.5b euro
3 gates at lagoon inlets
Design: 1990s, Construction: 2003 – 2017/18
Already degraded lagoon water quality…
Strengthening of lagoon natural margins, quays, docks
19-­05-­17
12

13. Barriers are not enough; water will just go around them, unless…
200: Critical Coastal Protection Infra had
“weak links”
Dune height, width insufficient (wind erosion)
Beach width insufficient (wave erosion)
Human penetrations of critical dune areas
“The backbone of coastal infra is below legal standard”
10 year Coastal Action Plan (2005 – 2015)
Address “weak links” with 800 mln euro project funds
with ongoing local CIP
Provincial / local govts add-ons for on collateral benefits:
transport/mobility, ecological, amenity, resilience
13

14. Katwijk
National Gov’t preferred option:
--straigten the (red) line of protection
--coastal dune heightening (+10 - + 12 ft)
--beach widening
--sand is primary tool
Local Gov’t had concerns:
--beachfront views, and access, for
Homeowners, tourists and retail
--”separation” of town and sea
--redevelopment
--land value

15. Dike in the dune. Increased protection. 660 hidden beachfront parking
spaces. Better beach access. Better beachfront retail.

17. Strengthen primary coastal defense, improve pedestrian and public transit, don’t
disrupt commerce, maintain historic aesthetics: $400 million (4 miles)
17

19. Coastal Mega Nourishments: The Sand Engine
21m cubic meters (366 acres)
Aug-Oct 2011
20 miles “reach” and 20 yr design life
Mother nature distributes sand to
foreshore / dune
>4$ per cubic meter sand

20. 2014

21. 2016

22. Deltacommissaris
Delta Program (20 – 50 – 100 yr plan)
• Delta Program: annual update to Parliament on actions
• Delta Decisions (strategic, 2015)
– On Flood Risk level (1/100,000, cost-benefit)
– On Freshwater Supply
– On Ijsselmeer water levels (summer and winter)
– On Flood Protection in the Delta
– On Experimental “water-robust” Land-Use and Planning
– On Sand (coastwide sediment budget = to SLR)
• Delta Commission (small staff)
--supervising coherence, coordination and
multi-governmental implementation
• Delta Fund, 1.2 bln є / yr (guaranteed to 2030)
• Delta Act, legal “anchoring” Delta-commissioner, program and fund

23. Multiple Layers of Defense
19-­05-­17
Surge Barriers must be linked into dunes
and other coastal protection.
Redundancy; stormwater; Nor’easters…

24. Urban Water Storage, in urban fabric

25. Urban water storage, and amenity
5/19/17

26. Deltacommissaris
Extreme weather: “We’ll pay, one way or another.”
Since 1980, $1 billion disasters in the U.S. have
tripled. More people, wealth, capital in coastal areas.
…from 1980 to 2011, weather-related catastrophes
cost…an average of more than $34 billion a year.
Losses…are rising in a long-term trend consistent with
models of climate change.
Katrina $150 b, Sandy $60 b, Ike $40 b,
Isaac $2.9 b, Matthew $ 10 b
Houston Tax Day 2016 $1.2 - $1.9 b
Memorial Day 2015 $1 b
San Antonio / Austin 2015 $1 b
Charleston / SC 2015 $2 b
Baton Rouge $9 b ??
Ellicott City $25 m
Hermine (Dare Cty, NC) $2.6 m