The New York Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of State present this overview of natural resilience measures and how they can reduce risk of flooding and erosion. Natural resilience measures are actions to conserve, restore or mimic natural landforms and processes that reduce risk from flooding and erosion.

New York's Community Risk and Resiliency Act (CRRA) requires state agencies and applicants to consider future physical climate risks, including storm surge, sea-level rise and flooding and extreme weather events in certain permitting, funding and regulatory actions. It also calls for New York's Departments of State and Environmental Conservation to develop guidance in accordance with CRRA requirements; this includes a specific requirement to develop guidance on how natural resilience measures can be used to reduce risks from storm surge, sea-level rise and flooding. This document provides an overview of natural resilience measures and will be used to support the future development of program-specific guidance for state regulatory programs covered by CRRA.

About this resource

This guidance report, from New York State ’s Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of State, was prepared by the Natural Resiliency Measures Drafting Team, pursuant to the New York State Community Risk and Resiliency Act. The core planning team behind the report consisted of Kristin Marcell, Carolyn Fraioli, Emilie Hauser, Stephanie Wojtowicz, Shannon Dougherty, Betsy Blair, Jeffrey Mapes, Francis Sheehan, Karen Strong and Barry Pendergrass.