NYU - Washington Square Park Campus
In coastal urban environments, areas further from the coast may feel insulated from the risk of storm surge, or feel like they are not coastal altogether. Looking at predicted storm surge and sea level rise for these areas tell a different story.
Projected flood risk 2035 in lower Manhattan, floodfactor.com
UrbanARK's research team through NYU is currently looking at how community members of the Washington Square Park area understand flood risks. This part of lower Manhattan has a diverse mix of long standing community members, NYU faculty and student housing, and employees that work in the surrounding area who commute from a few subway stops away, or outside of NYC altogether.
NOAA storm surge projections for a category 3 hurricane
Using VR technology, storm surge from varying hurricane intensity categories are superimposed over visualizations of parts of Washington Square Park. With VR usage as the experimental group and verbal representation of the data as the control, the projects aims to understand how community members differ in risk literacy for the area depending on proximity to Washington Square Park, what they use the area for, and any previous experience with extreme weather.
The methodology for this project can be seen here.