Community outreach within the Blue Acres Program often faces the challenge that community members may have a difficult time imagining that a buyout will have additional benefits beyond reducing flood risk for homeowners and expanding the floodplains. New public green spaces provide recreational opportunities, ecosystem services, and contribute to a better overall quality of life in the community. Hence, illustrative drawings and renderings based on realistic assumptions of the future landscape are an important tool to convincingly communicate the expected benefits.
This project develops landscape design renderings for post buyout land use in two New Jersey communities: New Milford Borough, Bergen County and the City of Pleasantville, Atlantic County.
Although the social and economic characteristics of each site are significantly different, they represent the two major flooding issues of New Jersey. Located along the Hackensack River, the Milford neighborhood is facing substantial flooding caused by torrential rain, the coastal community of Pleasantville is under direct threat of sea level rise.
