Overview of HEP’s Community Resilience Efforts
Community resilience to extreme weather events — from acute events like hurricanes and drought to long-term changes such as sea level rise, warming temperatures, and altered precipitation patterns — is increasingly needed as the frequency and magnitude of severe weather patterns are expected to grow.
To meet these challenges, the Hudson River Foundation and the NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program (HEP) support federal, state, and local government, and civic efforts working to reduce coastal erosion and flooding, manage stormwater and cloudburst events, and establish green infrastructure and natural and nature-based resiliency features. These projects can also deliver important water quality, habitat, public access, and other co-benefits, as outlined in HEP’s 2025-2035 Action Agenda.
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Request for Proposals: Building Community Capacity for Resiliency
The NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program (HEP) is requesting proposals to support communities seeking to advance research, planning, and/or infrastructure projects that will help increase resilience to recurring extreme weather events and impacts to related water quality issues in those communities.
A total of $350,000 is available under this request for proposals (RFP). HEP anticipates distributing funds through four to six grants for projects that can be completed no later than June 30, 2027. Grant recipients must be a local government or non-profit organization located in and/or serving communities within the Hudson-Raritan Estuary Watershed as defined by HEP’s 2025-2035 Action Agenda.
Proposal Timeline
Application Materials
Questions?
Funded Projects
Click below for more details about each project.
Advocating for Increased Tree Canopy along Newtown Creek’s Industrial Business Zones
Team: Willis Elikins, Newtown Creek Alliance; Shangtong Li, Newtown Creek Alliance
The Industrial Business Zones (IBZs) surrounding the English Kills and East Branch tributaries of Newtown Creek are among the hottest areas of New York City. Characterized by large industrial buildings, heavy truck and minimal vegetation, the IBZs are hotspots for the Urban Heat Island effect, leading to significantly higher temperatures than surrounding areas. These neighborhoods — East Williamsburg, Maspeth, West Bushwick, and Ridgewood — are identified as disadvantaged communities with high heat vulnerability index (HVI) ratings by the City of New York. Extreme heat and the lack of tree canopy are significant challenges in the IBZ areas surrounding Newtown Creek. The project focused specifically on the English Kills and East Branch tributaries. The study area included all land within 1,00 feet of the tributary shorelines, as these areas exhibit the highest concentrations of extreme heat, a lack of street trees, and opportunities for shoreline tree plantings. The goal was to invest in increasing the tree canopy within the study area to help reduce human health risks and raise awareness about the compounding environmental justice issues facing Newtown Creek.
Social Listening and Community Science for Understanding and Enhacing Community Flood Resilience: The Region of Paterson, New Jersey
Team: Laurie Howard, Passaic River Coalition; Daniel J. Van Abs, PhD, FAICP/PP, Passaic River Coalition; Nancy Wohlleb, PE, CME, EnvSP, Passaic River Coalition; Zeyuan Qiu, PhD, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Pei Liao, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Anish Katwal, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Maritza Paulino, Starfish*Global LLC; Oscar Moreno, Starfish*Global LLC
In many New Jersey municipalities, flooding is a frequent concern and cause of resident dislocation, property damage and health threats. Areas subject to flooding may not just be those officially mapped as flood hazard areas, especially in the case of flooding due to inadequate or poorly maintained stormwater management infrastructure. The increased availability of personal digital devices with cameras (e.g., “smart phones” and tablet computers) provides an opportunity for the public to be involved with identification of fluvial (river) and pluvial (stormwater) flooding during storm events of varying sizes. The Passaic River Coalition (PRC) designed this project, funded by HEP under the National Estuary Program, to combine online survey and mapping tools with community engagement using handheld devices to test this approach in the City of Paterson, a community with a history of both fluvial and pluvial flooding in neighborhoods that have a high proportion of lower-income and working class households, the majority of which primarily speak Spanish at home. The Flood Resilience Hub project was initiated by the PRC to help neighborhoods and city governments understand where flooding happens, how that relates to what was expected, and how that information can enhance community engagement, collaboration, and flood resilience in New Jersey. The primary purpose was to test how information submitted by the public could be used to augment other information in ways that improve flood preparedness and response through government and non-government entities and the local neighborhoods. The public-facing part of the project was named “FloodShots: Paterson” with a logo to indicate the focus on photographic evidence.
Citizen Advocacy to Promote Flood and Coastal Resilience in Southwest Yonkers
Team: Harrison Nesbit, Groundwork Hudson Valley, Inc.; Oded Holzinger, Groundwork Hudson Valley, Inc.; Ellen Theg, Groundwork Hudson Valley, Inc.; Rick Magder, Groundwork Hudson Valley, Inc.
This project was developed to advance major goals of the Yonkers’ Climate Action Plan (YCAP) through a community-centered education and engagement approach to mitigate flood risks and combined sewer overflows into local neighborhoods, and to slow stormwater runoff into the Hudson and Saw Mill Rivers. Local citizens from neighborhoods in Southwest Yonkers were educated and trained under the project to survey their community for priority green infrastructure sites, to participate in educating the community about this issue, and to complete community-driven demonstration projects. All these objectives were achieved during the project’s 18-month period under the Work Plan’s four main categories of work.
Coney Island Community-Driven Climate Resilience Action Plan
Team: Noah Chesnin, Wildlife Conservation Society; Libby Del Greco, Wildlife Conservation Society; Pamela Pettyjohn, Coney Island Beautification Project; Georganna Deas, Coney Island Beautification Project; Jamie Vanucchi, Cornell University
With support from the Hudson River Foundation, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Coney Island Beautification Project (CIBP), and Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, the project’s partners ) have worked collaboratively with residents of Coney Island, local non-profit organizations, and government officials to prepare a final Coney Island Community-Led Climate Resilience Plan. Over the course of six community workshops, residents have discussed their shared risks and identified potential solutions. Approximately 60 to 100 residents participated in each workshop and, as an illustration of their commitment to working together, many of the residents participated in each of the six workshops and worked collaboratively and iteratively with Cornell University students and professors to analyze and co-design potential solutions over the whole grant period. They vetted and refined the draft report that the partner organizations have compiled and then presented the final recommendations to City and State officials responsible for advancing resilience investments in South Brooklyn. Residents had multiple opportunities to meet directly with representatives from City Agencies as well as the opportunity to present the final report to elected officials during the final workshop in Spring 2025. More work is necessary to continue to ensure that government decision-makers weave the community-led plan into future government actions.
Mott Haven-Port Morris Waterfront Plan for Climate Resiliency
Team: Mychal Johnson, Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Stewards; Arif Ullah, South Bronx Unite