The U.S. Global Change Research Program welcomed Drexel Professor and EDD Founder and President Dr. Franco Montalto, P.E. to serve as an author for the Northeast chapter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). Attached is his official appointment letter welcoming him to the NCA5 team.
Drexel Professor and EDD Founder and President Dr. Franco Montalto, P.E. was interviewed by 6ABC for news piece, “Flooding after Ida brings new focus on Philadelphia’s aging infrastructure”
Dr. Franco Montalto was Interviewed for article in Philadelphia Inquirer on the impacts of climate change on Philadelphia’s sewer infrastructure.
Dr. Franco Montalto was interviewed by NBC 10 regarding flooding of the Vine Street Expressway after remnants of Hurricane Ida passed through the northeast US.
EDD Founder and President Dr. Franco Montalto, P.E. was interviewed for a NJ.com story regarding impacts of Hurricane Ida as it passed through New Jersey.
“It’s so important when you’re working in these neighborhoods to understand the history of what engineers did in New York City,” says Eric Rothstein, a managing partner at eDesign Dynamics, a water resources engineering firm. “In the Rockaways you’re talking about (late New York City public official) Robert Moses.” Historically, the projects he implemented involved heavy-handed, gray infrastructure with no regards for the community. “That’s the history that we’re butting up against every time we go into a community to do nature-based solutions,” Rothstein says. “(But) it’s still imposing something on a community if you don’t involve the community.”
“This is part of the movement to soften and naturalize our river edges in general,” says Eric Rothstein, a managing partner at eDesign Dynamics, a water resources engineering firm. “That’s a global trend now. Previously everything was bulkheaded with concrete, and now it has been realized that that approach isn’t good for resiliency, and it certainly isn’t good for habitat. This is one of many attempts to re-soften the edge.”
Through the Green Climate Fund’s (GCF) grant to the government of Grenada, eDesign Dynamics partnered with the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management to complete a pre-feasibility study of various climate change preparation projects for the island, including adaptation of the historic center of the island, the Carenage Edge.