This video discusses infrastructure adaptations taking place in some coastal areas that attempt to address sea level rise and coastal erosion from storms and strong waves.
The video highlights Staten Island, which has received funding to build a sea wall to prevent coastal erosion along a portion of its shore.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This video introduces students to several topics: climate adaptation, climate resilience, coastal erosion, sea walls, sea level rise, and flooding.
The description below the video provides links to additional research and climate-related content.
Additional Prerequisites
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Differentiation
Teachers could use this resource when discussing the relationship between ocean warming, sea level rise, flooding, and storms.
Advanced students could work in groups and create a protection plan for this island, which could include resilient infrastructure, walls, or other new ideas.
This resource explains how Staten Island wants to build a 5-mile long sea wall to protect itself from rising sea levels. Please note as of 2021, the project has been delayed and it does not appear that construction has yet begun. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-2 Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
ETS1: Engineering Design
HS-ETS1-3 Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.9.9-12 Evaluate the influence of long-term climate variability on human migration and settlement patterns, resource use, and land uses at local-to-global scales.
