Economic Impact of Sea Level Rise in the Tri-state Region and Consequences of “Non-action”

USGBC’s Middle Atlantic and New England regions have collaborated with the NYC Post of the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) to bring you a variety of monthly webinars in 2021, held the second Wednesday of the months of January, February, March, April, May, and June 2021.

The second installment is on February 10:Economic impact of sea level rise and storm surge in the tri-state region and consequences of “no-action” scenario. CEUS: Will provide Professional Engineer continued education credits (CEUs / PDHs), AIA LUs pending. Submitted to GBCI for CEU approval. Attendees are welcome to self-report this session to their accrediting body for continuing education.

Presenters:
Dr. Alexander Heil, Vice President for Research, Citizens Budget Commission
Chris Eshleman, Principal Economic Analyst, Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

Weather events similar to Hurricane Sandy are expected to become much more frequent and severe over the next few decades. While the potential damage to physical assets such as buildings or infrastructure assets is relatively well understood, the economic implications of disruption following such events require additional research. This presentation addresses this gap by outlining the estimated economic consequences of the shutdown of various Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Port Authority) facilities as a result of a severe weather event such as a storm or flood. Throughout the analysis, economic impact values associated with each facility consist of travel time delays or productivity losses, not the values of physical asset damage, therefore expanding the scope of damage commonly used by the resilience community. In essence, the presentation provides estimates of losses, attributable to such an event, experienced in the daily lives of travelers and day-to-day operations of businesses and institutions such as school, hospitals and government agencies.