Georgaphy and Environment of New York
New York City is located at the center of the BosWash megalopolis, 218 miles (350 km) driving distance from Boston and 220 miles (353 km) from Washington, D.C.. The city’s total area is 468.9 square miles (1,214.4 km²), of which 35.31% is water. The city is situated on the three major islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and western Long Island. The Bronx is the only borough that is part of the mainland United States.
New York City’s significance as a trading city results from the superb natural harbor formed by Upper New York Bay, which is surrounded by Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the coast of New Jersey. It is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island in Lower New York Bay.
The Hudson River flows from the Hudson Valley into New York Bay, becoming a tidal estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from New Jersey. The East River, actually a tidal strait, stretches from the Long Island Sound to New York Bay, separating the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. The Harlem River, another tidal strait between the East and Hudson Rivers, separates Manhattan from the Bronx.
The city’s land has been altered considerably by human intervention, with substantial land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch colonial times. Reclamation is most notable in Lower Manhattan with modern developments like Battery Park City. Much of the natural variations in topography have been evened out, particularly in Manhattan. One possible meaning for “Manhattan” is “island of hills”; in fact, the island was quite hilly before European settlement.
Environmental issues
Although cities like San Francisco or Portland, Oregon are most commonly associated with urban environmentalism in the United States, New York City’s unique urban footprint and extensive transportation systems make it more sustainable than most American cities. The environmental organization SustainLane ranked New York highest of all U.S. cities with more than 1 million residents in its 2005 US City Rankings, a detailed report on city quality of life combined with indicators of sustainability programs, policies and performance.[1] The organization cited New York’s land use, density, transportation systems, innovative watershed management, and extensive local food and agriculture resources that include 750 community gardens and 64 farmers markets as some of the city’s strongest environmental assets.
New York plays an important role in the green policy agenda because of its size. Environmental groups make large efforts to help shape legislation in New York because they see the strategy as an efficient way to influence national programs. New York City’s economy is larger than Switzerland’s, a size that means the city has potential to set new defacto standards. Manufacturers are also attuned to the latest trends and needs in the city because the market is simply too big to ignore.
Water supply
Many of the city’s environmental assets are related to geography and a long tradition of environmental stewardship in the mountain ranges north of the city. New York’s water supply is fed by a 2,000 square mile watershed in the Catskill Mountains. Because the watershed is in one of the largest protected wilderness areas in the United States, the natural water filtration process remains intact. As a result, New York is one of the few cities in the country with drinking water pure enough not to require processing by water treatment plants.
The city’s unique density, encouraged by much of it being surrounded by water, facilitates the highest rate of mass transit use in the United States. New York is one of the most energy efficient cities in the United States as a result. Gas consumption in New York is at the rate the national average was in the 1920s.[3] The city’s mass transit system, multifamily housing, mixed neighborhoods and the fact that developments no longer go up on virgin land make building in New York very energy efficient.
Nevertheless, New York faces growing energy demands and limited space. The city has introduced a series of innovative environmental policies since the 1990s to address these problems. These include a raft of detailed measures, such as switching more than 11,000 traffic lights and “Don’t Walk” signals in the city to new enery-efficient light-emitting diodes that use 90% less energy than conventional fixtures. The city will also replace 149,000 “cobra head” street lights with new energy efficient designs by 2008.
Over 180,000 inefficient refrigerators in public housing projects have been replaced with new ones that use a quarter of the power of the old ones. By law, the city government can purchase only the most efficient cars, air-conditioners and copy machines.[4] The electricity used to power the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and 22 other federal buildings in New York City, an annual electricity demand of roughly 27 million kilowatt hours, is provided by wind power.
New York City is home to several clean energy projects. The most significant is the installation of underwater turbines in the East River to take advantage of tidal currents. Designed by researchers at New York University, six windmill-like turbines with three 8 foot-long blades are being installed just north of the Queensborough Bridge. They will supply electricty to Roosevelt Island. After an 18-month trial, an additional 300 slow-moving, widely spaced turbines will be installed. They will generate enough clean energy for 8,000 homes. Planning is also underway to construct windmills on a hill in the former Fresh Kills Landfill. The wind energy project would power 5,000 homes on Staten Island.
Green building
For years New York City was slow to embrace green building guidelines used in cities like San Francisco to promote environmentally-friendly construction. In the post-World War II construction boom, changes in zoning regulations and the widespread use of air conditioning led to the design of sealed glass and steel towers. Without natural sources of light and ventilation, such buildings required large amounts of fossil fuels to operate.
This phase of building style is rapidly changing in New York, which has become a leader in energy-efficient green office buildings like 7 World Trade Center, which recycles rainwater and uses it in toilets and for irrigation, and computer-controlled heating and lighting. The United States Green Building Council estimates 3,000 new green apartments in New York City have been built since 2001.
In 2000 the state of New York introduced a green building tax credit, the first one of its kind in the United States, that has allowed some developers of environmentally friendly buildings to write off as much as $6 million on their tax bill. The city’s Department of Design and Construction developed a set of guidelines in 1999 that encourage environmentally sound building methods for municipal projects. The guidelines had led to approximately $700 million in green city construction projects by the end of 2005.[6] In 2005, New York City mandated that nonresidential public buildings costing $2 million or more be built to standards set by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), which grade buildings in areas like energy and water consumption, indoor-air quality and use of renewable materials. The legislation also applies to private projects that receive $10 million or more in public funds or half of whose budgets come from public money.
Air pollution
Air pollution, while not as severe as in cities like Los Angeles or Beijing, remains a problem. The city’s air has high levels of ozone and particulates, and residents in some neighborhoods have very high rates of asthma. Air pollution is an ongoing political issue in neighborhoods that contain bus depots.
The 2004 annual report of the American Lung Association ranks New York City as 18th of the 20 regions in the United States most affected by year-round particle pollution, behind Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, and Modesto, California among other cities.[7] New York City ranks 13th of the 20 regions most affected by smog, behind Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, among others. While none of the outer boroughs of New York City rank in the top 25 U.S. counties most polluted by annual particle pollution, Manhattan ranks 22nd.
The city has made efforts to reduce particle pollution with measures like fitting catalytic converters to the exhausts of diesel city buses. New York also has the largest hybrid bus fleet in the country, and some of the first hybrid taxis. A large percentage of the city-owned vehicle fleet, including the personal cars of top city officials, are required since 2005 to be fuel efficient hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius or Honda Accord gas-electric sedan that produce minimal particulates and carbon dioxide emissions. In 2005 the city’s vehicle fleet had 6,000 alternative fuel and 70 electric vehicles. A biodiesel processing plant will soon open in Brooklyn that will process 2.5 million gallons of biodiesel a year and distribute it to conventional gas stations in the city.
The Department of Sanitation, which has 1,500 trucks of its 2,200-vehicle fleet on the streets each day, is working with truck manufacturers to introduce gas-electric hybrid garbage trucks. The Department switched to using low-sulfur fuel in 2001 and uses corn-based ethanol in 500 of its 1,500 light-duty trucks.[9]
Other issues
Much of the city’s housing stock is old, and lead paint is an ongoing public health issue. Environmentalists and city officials have also struggled to establish a longterm garbage disposal plan for the city. Some parts of the city are also at risk if current global warming patterns continue and sea levels rise.