News and Updates

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Philadelphia District and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection hosted two planning workshops/charettes for the New Jersey Back Bay Coastal Storm Risk Management Study. The northern area workshop was held on June 17th at Ocean County College and the southern area workshop was held at Stockton University on June 21. Both workshops provided an opportunity for USACE to introduce the study to stakeholders and to solicit initial feedback. 

• Workshop Presentation (June 2016)
• Workshop Breakout Session Information (June 2016) 
• Coastal Risk Management Strategy Profile (Feedback form)

Study Background

Historic storms, including Hurricane Sandy, have severely impacted the back bay communities of coastal New Jersey. The New Jersey Back Bay (NJBB) Study developed out of the larger North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study (NACCS) which identified nine high-risk areas on the Atlantic Coast for further in-depth analysis. The NJBB study area is located behind the New Jersey barrier islands of Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington, Atlantic and Cape May Counties and includes the set of interconnected water bodies and coastal lakes that are separated from the Atlantic Ocean.

The purpose of the study is to investigate Coastal Storm Risk Management (CSRM) strategies and solutions to reduce damages from coastal flooding affecting population, critical infrastructure, critical facilities, property, and ecosystems.

The Study will consider the full array of structural, non-structural, and natural and nature-based measures. Examples are highlighted in the below chart. 

The study will consider past, current, and future coastal storm risk management and resilience planning initiatives and projects underway by the USACE and other Federal, State, and local agencies. Three overarching efforts will be performed: 

• Assess the study area’s problems, opportunities and future without project conditions;
• Assess the feasibility of implementing system-wide coastal storm risk management solutions such as policy/programmatic strategies, storm surge barriers at selected inlet entrances, or tidal gates at selected lagoon entrances; 
• Assess the feasibility of implementing site-specific perimeter solutions such as a combination of structural, non-structural, and natural and nature-based features;
• Assess the impacts of back bay strategies and solutions on the Atlantic Coast CSRM Program towards developing recommendations within a systems context given likely future scenarios.

Also included in the report: recommendations of actionable and policy implementable items for non-USACE entities, including floodplain management, landscape architecture, hurricane evacuation plans, and Community Rating System enhancement opportunities. Additional recommendations will be provided for incorporating existing USACE and external programs, projects, plans and actions into the NJBB framework. Environmental impacts will be assessed through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) processes.