Undergraduate Research: An Archive - 2021 Program

Casey Conrad ’21
GEOSCIENCES
Certificate in Environmental Studies
THESIS TITLE
Bowling Green as the
Achilles Heel: An
Updated Analysis of
New York City’s Subway
System in Response to
Predicted Sea-Level
Rise
ADVISER
Michael Oppenheimer,
Albert G. Milbank
Professor of
Geosciences and
International Affairs
and the High Meadows
Environmental Institute
With the East Coast experiencing greater-thanaverage
sea-level rise (SLR), it is imperative
that major metropolitan areas are protected
against increasingly destructive storm events.
This study updated the New York City subway
system’s resiliency literature. A critical
analysis of the system highlighted the current
vulnerabilities within the infrastructure to
SLR and the 0.01 annual-chance high waterlevel
storm event. Bowling Green Station in
southern Manhattan was predicted to be most
at risk to flooding in 2080. This is primarily
due to neglect of this specific station by the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA)
resiliency framework established after Hurricane
Sandy in 2012, as well as the great potential
for floodwater propagation and destruction
in underground stations. With Bowling Green
Station’s vulnerability known, the MTA and
NYC government must enact the appropriate
resiliency measures to protect the station (and
other such stations) for decades to come.
URBAN
SUSTAINABILITY
48