Grain Collective is leading the stakeholder engagement and providing urban design and planning support for a long-term neighborhood wide resiliency and coastal risk reduction project in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Hurricane Sandy left a deep imprint on this waterfront community. The flooding that the community experienced resulted in several closed businesses and rendered many homes uninhabitable. The Red Hook Integrated Flood Protection System [IFPS] Feasibility Study offers a much-needed opportunity to protect the community from similar future disasters.The project focus is to study the technical feasibility of a $100 million IFPS project for Red Hook. The team includes an inter-disciplinary group led by Dewberry comprised of engineers, urban designers, landscape architects and environmental specialists. An IFPS system will consist of various interventions that will act together as a flood and climate change defense system to reduce the flood risks from coastal and rainfall induced flooding and sea level rise within the Red Hook study area.

The one year study seeks to incorporate community input throughout the process, to ensure that the final product is reflective of stakeholder’s concerns and priorities. Some of the key elements of the engagement include:
• One on one meetings with community leaders and organizations
• Small workshop format meetings
• Large format public meetings
• Tabling at local events
A key component of the community engagement work for this study is creating presentation and workshop activity materials that convey detailed technical information to the community in an easily understandable and digestable format. The end result of the Feasibility Study is an application through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.