As Sea Levels Rise, Brooklyn Will Take City's Hardest Hit

More than 700,000 New Yorkers live in low-lying areas – land less than 10 feet above sea level – the most of any city in the country. According to a 2015 report, as global temperatures continue to rise, the city could experience a 6-foot rise in sea levels during the 21st century. That would be very bad news for a great many people.

A new visualization by Landscape Metrics, published in The Atlantic’s CityLab, projects that a 5-foot surge in sea levels would affect 1.5 million New Yorkers, as well as 350 schools, and 250 transit and waste treatment facilities. Brooklyn will suffer about twice as much damage as Manhattan. Miami and New Orleans are also extremely vulnerable.

Is there a silver lining to these storm clouds? Yes, says Michael Berkowitz, a Brooklyn resident and president of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program. “What has changed with our organization and others is that more and more cities are learning from each other,” Berkowitz told CityLab. “There’s actually a pride in stealing solutions, city to city.”