Sam Raudins is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the state Department of Environmental Conservation has awarded the Hudson Valley Collaborative $125,000 to craft a longterm solution to rising sea levels in an effort to preserve the city of Hudson's waterfront. The firm was contracted to preserve the ecology of the waterfront and intertidal marshland while still allowing for recreation as water levels increase, according to a statement released by the DEC. The area under scrutiny is city-owned property that is a popular area, said Wendy Andringa of the Hudson Valley Collaborative. “It’s an active recreational waterfront site with boat launches, the city has summer events there, so it’s sort of an open space, and it’s a well-loved space right now. But there’s room for improvement. And so what we’re going to be doing is looking ahead at 2050, 2080, 2100, at how estuary level rise is going to impact that site,” she said. The DEC reports that the sea level in the lower Hudson River has risen 15 inches since 1900, and in the 2020s, it is projected to rise another four to 10 inches. By mid-century, it is predicted to rise another nine to 27 inches. Flooding has become more common and flood zones expanded as the water level has increased, and the chance of a 100-year flood became 50 percent more likely during the past year. The grant was awarded in partnership with a regional commission that helps Northeast states preserve and advance water quality, Andringa said. DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program focuses on the tidal Hudson and its adjacent watershed from the federal dam at Troy to the Verrazano Narrows in New York City. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.