From the Everglades to New York: Lessons in Urban Resilience
By Dr. Meenakshi Chabba, Ecosystem & Resilience Scientist
October 2026
Climate Week in New York City this year brought together thousands of scientists, innovators, practitioners, planners, designers, policymakers, and advocates focused on a shared challenge: how communities can become more resilient in a changing climate. For me, the week was both an opportunity to share South Florida's story and to see how resilience is being implemented on the ground in one of the world's largest cities.
The experience reinforced an important lesson. While every region faces unique challenges, resilience leaders around the world are increasingly converging on a common idea. The ecosystems that sustain communities are not simply amenities to be protected. They are essential infrastructure that can reduce risk, improve quality of life, and help cities adapt to a changing climate.
Bringing South Florida's Story to the Conversation
During Climate Week, I had the opportunity to present at the Spongy Urbanism Symposium hosted by the University of Miami Climate Resilience Institute at Wagner Park Pavilion in Lower Manhattan. The event brought together resilience experts who shared both research and real-world applications for how cities can adapt to increasing climate risks while creating greener, healthier, and more livable communities.
My message was straightforward. For more than twenty-five years, South Florida has been advancing the largest ecosystem restoration effort in the world, one whose goals closely align with modern resilience thinking. Long before the principles of sponge city gained traction in urban planning, Everglades restoration recognized the fundamental principle that healthy ecosystems and connected water flow are indispensable foundations of resilient communities.
Sponge Park and nature based solutions on the banks of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York. Photos: Dr. Meenakshi Chabba.
Everglades restoration seeks to reconnect a critical ecosystem, increase freshwater storage, improve water quality, protect drinking water supplies, reduce flood risk, and strengthen coastal resilience. These are not just environmental outcomes; they are investments in South Florida's future. The Everglades is a trillion-dollar natural asset that supports our economy, sustains our way of life, and provides an estimated $31.5 billion in annual benefits supporting real estate values, water security, risk reduction, recreation, tourism, and other ecosystem services. In many ways, the Everglades demonstrates that healthy ecosystems are not separate from resilience infrastructure; they are resilience infrastructure.
Today, those ambitions continue to grow across South Florida. Communities throughout the region are exploring how green and gray infrastructure can work together, how canals can provide ecological and community benefits in addition to flood control, and how restored wetlands can strengthen both environmental and community resilience.
As I shared during the symposium, the future of South Florida’s resilience may ultimately involve bringing more of the Everglades back into the city.
Seeing Resilience on the Ground
While sharing South Florida's experience was rewarding, some of the most valuable lessons came from seeing New York's resilience investments firsthand. What stood out most was the opportunity to move beyond plans, reports, and renderings and experience these projects as functioning public spaces.
Flood walls and accessible waterfront in Battery Park. Photos: Dr. Meenakshi Chabba.
At Battery Park, flood protection infrastructure is almost indistinguishable from the public realm, blending seamlessly into an accessible and inviting waterfront. Along the Gowanus Canal, restored salt marshes sit alongside dense urban development, demonstrating how ecological restoration and urban revitalization can advance together. During a Waterfront Alliance boat tour of New York Harbor, I visited projects including Pier 26, Pier 6, Governors Island, and Gansevoort Peninsula, each illustrating different approaches to combining ecological restoration, recreation, and climate adaptation.
One particularly striking example was the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, where flood protection is woven into public space. Parks, walkways, recreation areas, and protective infrastructure function together as a single system.
Standing along these waterfronts and seeing people actively using these spaces offered a perspective that plans and reports alone cannot provide. Resilience was not something being discussed as a future aspiration. It was already becoming part of the city's everyday landscape.
Collectively, these projects demonstrate that resilience investments do more than reduce risk. They can improve quality of life, create public amenities, strengthen neighborhoods, and reconnect people with water.
Accessible recreational opportunities and retractable floow wall, East Side Coastal Resiliency Project. Photos: Dr. Meenakshi Chabba
Why Looking Beyond South Florida Matters
For The Everglades Foundation, opportunities like Climate Week are about more than conference participation.
Effective resilience solutions do not emerge in isolation. They require continuous learning, collaboration, and a willingness to test ideas across different landscapes and communities. As environmental challenges evolve, scientists must remain connected to emerging research, innovative design approaches, and real-world implementation efforts occurring across the country and around the world.
By participating in events like Climate Week, The Everglades Foundation helps ensure that our science remains connected to both cutting-edge research and real-world implementation. These experiences allow us to share lessons from Everglades restoration while bringing home new ideas, partnerships, and insights that can strengthen resilience efforts in South Florida.
That exchange of knowledge flows in both directions. South Florida's experience restoring one of the world's most iconic wetlands offers valuable lessons for communities grappling with water management, ecosystem restoration, and climate adaptation. At the same time, projects in places like New York provide insights into how resilience can be integrated into dense urban environments, public spaces, and community planning.
The result is a richer understanding of what works and how those ideas can be adapted to local needs.
A Shared Future
Climate Week revealed a growing movement toward solutions that unite ecological health, infrastructure, and community well-being.
New York City and the Greater Everglades may look very different, but both regions are confronting the same challenge: how to live with water in a changing climate.
For me, the week served as a reminder that resilience is built through continual learning, innovation, and collaboration. The lessons exchanged during Climate Week will help shape resilience efforts far beyond New York City.
As South Florida continues to invest in restoration and resilience, these exchanges matter. They help us share the lessons of the Everglades while learning from communities that are tackling similar challenges in different ways. This flow of knowledge is itself a valuable form of resilience that we continue to build.
Want to learn more?
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