NYC’s Prospect Park is Getting a $68 Million ‘Bluebelt’

New York City is planning a $68 million ‘Bluebelt’ system in Brooklyn to reduce flash flooding in the borough. As Robyn Griggs Lawrence explains in Smart Cities Dive, the plan includes upgrading Prospect Park Lake’s drainage infrastructure and building new ponds and rain gardens. The project is crucial as annual rainfall in New York City is projected to increase by up to 14 percent by the 2050s.

The project is the result of a study from the city’s Department of Environmental Protection which found that water during storms often rushes over the ground instead of flowing into the lake, whose limited capacity can cause it to overflow. “DEP, NYC’s Department of Parks & Recreation and the Prospect Park Alliance will collaborate on upgrading the lake’s drainage infrastructure, building a new pond and a continuous stretch of rain gardens that will slow and filter rainwater as it drains to the lake and restore a pond that was filled in north of the Prospect Park Zoo to collect rainwater from Flatbush Avenue.”

According to Griggs Lawrence, “The project is intended to complement the $20 million Lakeshore Restoration Plan, which will reconstruct Prospect Park Lake’s shoreline with green infrastructure for stormwater management.”

The city built its first Bluebelt project in Staten Island in 2023, where new infrastructure filters stormwater into catch basins and storm sewers before it reaches lower New York Bay.