By Barry Chalofsky

It’s hard to turn on the news in the evening, or browse the internet, and not see images of severe weather events — floods, tornadoes, wildfires, drought, drenching rains and rising seas. Whether you believe in climate change or not, there is clearly something happening to our weather.

It may seem as though the media are dramatizing these events, but climate does appear to be changing. According to Marjorie Kaplan, from Rutgers’ Climate and Environmental Change Initiative, and Jeanne Herb, from Rutgers’ Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, “New Jersey is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.” As a result of temperature changes, they say, we can expect to have “heat waves, rising seas, more frequent flooding and greater coastal impacts from storm events.”

According to a recent Kean University/NJ Speaks poll, 71 percent of New Jersey respondents believed that “the possible effects of climate change and global warming were a concern.”

For most of us, climate impacts rank way up there on the scale of things we feel powerless to deal with. It’s difficult enough to plan a picnic or a sailboat ride using the weather forecast. Climate change is many orders of magnitude greater than the daily weather.

James Hughes and Robert Goodman of Rutgers have said, "New Jersey remains highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, as a densely populated coastal state with aging infrastructure and housing stock." Rutgers University has prepared an excellent resource on the potential impacts of climate change (climatechange.rutgers.edu/njadapt.html). I'd like to discuss here, and in future guest articles, what we can do to adapt to the impacts of changes in the climate that many believe have already started.

Increased severity of storms and flooding. We have all seen a change in the nature of rain and snow storms. While we may or may not get more storms, it appears that the intensity of storm events is increasing. This will lead to increased flooding, both along the coast and inland. This flooding will increase beach and stream bank erosion, as well as cause more damage to property in the flood plains of streams and rivers. Increased flooding also changes the aquatic ecological systems by changing spawning cycles, increasing the amount of sedimentation in streams and rivers (thereby reducing available oxygen and blanketing stream beds with sediment), and increasing the harmful impacts of runoff of fertilizers, pesticides and other pollutants, all resulting in loss of aquatic life.

Storms of greater intensity do more damage to trees and other vegetation. They also over-saturate the soil, leading to weakened roots. Too much water can kill vegetation as much as can too little water. Soil saturation leads to basement flooding and unstable soil conditions, which may result in more sinkholes and problems with building foundations. There could also be impacts to septic systems that rely on the soil to remove and dispose of pollutants. Homes, buildings and roadways built near the coast, in flood plains or on poorly drained soils will most likely see an increase in problems due to these storms. However, all of us are likely to face additional complications from this trend.

What can we do? In the article “Get flooded repeatedly or get out of the way” (Oct. 21, 2011), I discussed some concepts regarding the federal flood insurance program and how changes in that program could gradually move buildings out of the flood zone. This effort needs to be accelerated at the state level using Blue Acres funding, as well as other funding sources. In addition, where buildings cannot be moved, greater efforts must be made to elevate them.

Roads should be repaved with porous asphalt to allow the water to soak through to the ground faster. In addition, we need to provide better surface drainage to enable quicker evacuation of the storm water. This is going to be complicated, because we need the storm water to recharge our ground water supply under low flow conditions and also to move the water away under high flow conditions.

The key will be to design multipurpose drainage systems that perform both functions.

Residential and commercial properties need to incorporate better surface drainage to prevent water from eroding foundations and entering basements.

Greater use of native vegetation and reduced lawn areas can help to minimize runoff. However, in intense storms, vegetation is not enough to compensate, so properties will require better use of swales (depressions in the ground) and ditches, or even pipes, to direct water away from the house.

The real challenge will be in preventing the water from impacting neighboring properties or overwhelming neighborhood storm water systems.

State, county and local governments need to work together to plan for the impacts of increased flooding and more intense storms.

Barry Chalofsky, P.P., former chief of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's storm water and ground water programs, is an environmental and land-use planning consultant and an adjunct instructor of environmental planning at Rutgers University. Reach him at bchalofassociates.com.

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