About Our Project

NYC Underwater is a project created by three students at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The idea was sparked by observing a string of unexpected global weather disasters. We developed an interest to investigate the city's level of preparedness for such weather emergencies.

Data for the project was sourced by resources such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Columbia University's Earth Institute, CUNY's Insitute for Sustainable Cities, The Lamont-Doherty Observatory and Open Data NYC to ultimately analyze the insurance, financial and preventative methods taken by the city of New York.

What is a 100-year-flood?

Contrary to what is commonly believed, a 100-year flood does not mean that only one flood of a major size will strike every 100 years. Instead, it is a probability term to describe the likelihood of a flood occurrance. Scientists have recently replaced the term with the more appropriate "1-percent annual chance flood." This means that there is a 1 percent chance of a major flood happening in any given year. Over a 100-year period, the chances become at least 63.5 percent.