Hudson Access Project, Research and Advocacy Roadmap
The mission of the Hudson Access Project is to create a comprehensive water access dataset and interactive map to empower individuals to connect with the Hudson and Harbor Estuary. The project is in its second year and to date has successfully created a foundational database, a beta-version interactive website that makes this access information available to the public, and has established a summer data collection fellowship for long term maintenance of the database. The website and database provide insights into accessibility, amenities, facilities, and regulations, allowing the public to make informed decisions regarding their waterfront experiences. From the start, the Hudson Access Project has collaborated with the NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program (HEP), and their Public Access Working Group (PAWG) to identify ways to improve the map and to make it sustainable. With the Taconic Fellowship, we will work with the Public Access Working Group to create a roadmap for using the database and map for research and advocacy, including an environmental justice analysis. We’ll identify additional water access points such as street-ends and revise the water quality and water safety resources to improve the map and website. Finally, we’ll work with the Resilience Adaptation Mitigation and Planning (RAMP) lab of the Pratt School of Architecture to create a module to engage graduate-level design students in water access research and advocacy. The project's collaborative approach ensures that it meets community needs, delivering tangible benefits to the public through accessible water access information, while providing advocates with reliable data to advocate for increased equity in water access. The Hudson Access Project is hosted by the RAMP program at Pratt. It was created by Pratt SAVI in collaboration with the New York - New Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program (HEP) and their Public Access Working Group (PAWG) through a grant from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
