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Albany County developing new climate resiliency plan, with focus on sea level rise, floods and storms

Albany County Executive Dan McCoy's Office has been developing a Climate Resiliency Plan
Albany County
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Albany County Executive Dan McCoy's Office has been developing a Climate Resiliency Plan

Albany County is moving ahead with a new Climate Resiliency Plan that includes several proposed projects.

Albany County Executive Dan McCoy's Office has been developing a Climate Resiliency Plan to develop a "Sustainable Albany campaign" and address risks and vulnerabilities associated with an increase in frequency and severity of storm events, sea level rise, flooding, and other climate-related hazards.

Officials began working on the plan in July 2021 and recently met to present an overview of the report.

Albany County’s Economic Development and Sustainability Coordinator Luke Rogers says there are four "key components" to the plan.

"The first is understanding the threats to the county from climate change," said Rogers. "And that primarily comes down to flooding, extreme weather and extreme heat, that's not the full list, but those are the main threats that we face. And understanding and analyzing them was the first step. Step two, is a comprehensive inventory of assets in the county, and that ranges from anything from a nursing home to a school to a cultural institution to a fire station. Basically, what are the assets that we have here that we want to protect and make resilient. The third step is really taking those first two pieces and melding them together to understand the assets in the county that face the most specific risk from climate change. And the third is, once we have that coming up with recommendations, projects and programs that the county with our partners can implement to make the county more resilient to the threats of climate change."

Rogers says the county is focused on the fourth step of the recommendations:

"What are the actions that we can take to make the county more resilient to climate change," asked Rogers. "The threats are not new. It's the frequency and severity that has increased over time . And we see that nationwide, we see it globally. And they there's a lot we can do to fight climate change."

Liz King is with Bergmann Associates, a Rochester-based consulting firm that prepared the report. She says the firm developed a county profile consisting of five key categories and how they are affected by climate change.

"We looked at housing conditions, and the extent of housing, land uses and residential land uses," King said. "We looked at several different infrastructure systems from roadways, culverts, public transit, water infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, we mapped health and social services. So these are critical facilities like fire departments, police departments, other emergency response, hospitals, schools libraries, we also looked at natural and cultural resources. So existing open spaces, natural landmarks and historic landmarks, as well as economic systems. And a big part of Albany County's economic systems are agricultural uses."

King notes that Albany County leads a proactive coordinated effort among municipalities to anticipate, adapt to and quickly recover from climate related disturbances. She adds the draft plan focuses on working collaboratively and transparently across different systems and to understand the impacts and the long-term sustainability of the county's policies, programs and actions.

The report includes climate risk maps created to help asses flood, heat and social vulnerability risks. King says Bergmann secured data including precipitation models that incorporate climate change projections out to 2050. Pre-emptive measures could include flood proofing homes, resilient upgrades to existing structures, installing green infrastructure and enhancing the urban forest.

The plan recommends strengthening the county's existing Agricultural and Farmland Protection Program.

"A big part of being resilient is that we can have a local agricultural economy, that in times of emergency could provide local food for our communities," King said. "So making sure that farmland can stay farmland and continue to be farmed, and then also putting together a disaster response plan for farms countywide. And then some of the actions that the county can take to support farms. So currently, there are quite a few funding sources through Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Soil and Water Conservation District focused on climate resilient actions. But again, you know, one opportunity for the county is to enhance funding of these programs so that more farms can take advantage of these resources, and start implementing climate resilient practices, for example, installing large cisterns, that can catch water during extreme rain events. And then that water can be used when we have extreme heat and drought. And then also, again, another form of financial assistance being the creation of a bridge loan program, or grant program that can help farms recover from disasters quickly."

King says there are cost estimates in the plan along with funding sources that are currently available.

Here's a link to the complete report.

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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