Future City Lab: NYC Wetlands

Depending on grade level, students should be able to identify a number of risks and benefits, from simple ones – like risk of flooding, hurricanes, and tsunamis – to more complicated ones such as access to water trade routes. 

Review the data on NASA’s Climate website. Start with graph under its “Evidence” tab (“Climate Change: How Do We Know?”, https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/) and review with students why rising global temperatures contribute to sea level rise. (Answer: melting ice sheets from the Earth's poles contribute to large levels of sea level rise, and warmer water expands and takes up more space.) 

Click through to the sea level data visualization at https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/sea-level/ to confirm that historical and current measurements all show a clear upward trend. 

Next review Climate Central’s Surging Seas Risk Zone Map for New York City: https://ss2.climatecentral.org/#12/40.7298/-74.0070?show=satellite&projections=0-RCP85-SLR&level=5&unit=feet&pois=hide 

Ask: What might increased sea level rise look like? Use slider on left-hand side of screen to visualize increased sea level for the New York area. 

For reference, consensus projections have sea level rise likely at three to six feet by 2100 if current carbon emissions rates continue. (The projections were at one to three feet just a year or so ago; scientists have adjusted their models to accommodate accelerating ice melt in Antarctica and Greenland.)  

Explain to students that there are many strategies to combat sea level rise, but some of the most compelling are ones that manage to achieve several desirable goals at once. Today the group will be learning about the value of wetlands and considering them as a potential means of mitigating rising seas. 

Ask: What is a wetland? Chart responses on the board. 

Have students read the introductory Wetlands Info Worksheet and answer some questions at the end to check for understanding. 

End with reviewing the Regional Planning Association’s interactive vanishing wetland map (click through for full interactive map and test before presenting). 

Have students break into groups. Each group will read one of three readings on wetlands from the EPA. Students should take notes on important information. After they finish reading and taking notes, they can discuss what they learned with others in the group. 

Note that these reports are not recent, but represent solid overviews of the key benefits that wetlands hold. Students should be warned not to rely on web links for further information-gathering, but rather direct them to the main EPA wetlands website: https://www.epa.gov/wetlands. Challenge students to think of whether there are any new developments or threats that might play into the larger discussion. (Zika, for example, rather than West Nile Virus.) 

Reshuffle students so that groups are comprised of students who read all three articles. Have students share what they learned from their article. Direct students to pay attention to what ideas repeat through each of the articles and which ones appear to be central themes. 

Have students write an analysis on whether wetlands should be preserved and/or restored. They should cite relevant information that will help support their ideas. 

Before the end of the lesson, ask students what they think can be done to support wetlands. Answers might cover themes like avoiding pollution, dredging, and development to proactively restoring wetland habitats and getting politically involved. Students should also be aware of the need to properly use and dispose of chemicals and pesticides and to buy low-phosphate detergents in the home.