Dive Brief:

• If you can put aside emotion – and perhaps suppress howls of protest – for a moment, a team of U.S. and Dutch researchers will tell you that the most cost-effective approach to dealing with another event like superstorm Sandy is not to build giant surge barriers that could be raised across the Outer Harbor and the East River's connection to Long Island Sound.
• That option, at a cost of $11 billion to $15 billion would be a world-class construction project but would have a payback in avoided damage of 2.24 times the cost, their study published in "Science" magazine reported after they looked at 549 simulated storm scenarios.
• What would get a benefit of 2.45 times its cost would be protecting infrastructure such as airports with limited barriers, creating some waterfront levees and imposing tough building codes in low-lying areas.

Dive Insight:

Getting people to accept expensive projects for potential savings and safety is never easy. This study seems to make perfect sense, but could any politician sell the plan when it would still mean homes and businesses being damaged or wrecked because, in the big scheme of things, they are not expensive to replace?