Theenvironment of New York City consists of many interwoven ecosystems as part of theNew York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary. Theclimate of New York City shapes the environment with its cool, wet winters and hot, humid summers with plentiful rainfall all year round. As of 2020, New York City held44,509 acres of urban tree canopy with 24% of its land covered in trees.^[1][2] As of 2020, thepopulation of New York City numbered 8.8 million human beings.^[3]

The climate of New York City features ahumid subtropical variety, with parts of the city transitioning into ahumid continental climate, giving the city cool, wet winters and hot, humid summers with plentiful rainfall all year round.^[4]

In September 1821, ahurricane moved up the east coast of the United States, producing a 13 ft (4.0 m) rise of water –storm surge – in the span of one hour atBattery Park. Water levels reached as far inland asCanal Street.^[5] The next hurricane in the city was inAugust 1893, which knocked down power and telegraph lines, and destroyed several houses.^[6] DuringHurricane Hazel in 1954, winds at The Battery reached 113 mph (182 km/h).^[7] Anor'easter in December 1992 produced record high tides, with a water level of 8.04 ft (2.45 m) at The Battery.^[8] Floods inundated low-lying areas, and at least 50 cars onFranklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive required rescue.^[8][9] The 1992 storm was surpassed by formerHurricane Sandy in October 2012, which rose water levels to 14.06 ft (4.29 m) above theaverage low tide. Floodwaters covered about 17% of New York City, imparting about $19 billion in damage, including $5 billion to transportation infrastructure. The floods affected the homes of more than 443,000 people and more than 23,400 businesses. There were 43 deaths in the city related to Sandy.^[10][11] In September 2021,former Hurricane Ida set a rainfall record when it dropped 3.15 inches (8.0 cm) of precipitation in one hour.^[12] The storm killed 13 people in the city, several of them due to drowning in basement apartments. Floods also shut down roads and the subway.^[13]

The hottest day on record in the city was July 9, 1936, when Central Park recorded a high temperature of 106 °F (41 °C).^[14] Aheat wave in August 1896 killed 1,500 people in the city.^[15] The coldest day on record was February 9, 1934, with a temperature of −15 °F (−26 °C).^[16] In March 1888, ablizzard dropped 21 in (530 mm) of snowfall, killing 200 people across the city.^[17] Atropical storm in 1882 dropped 8.28 in (210 mm) of rainfall on September 23, which was the wettest calendar day on record, going back to 1869.^[18][19] AJanuary 2016 blizzard dropped 30.5 in (77 cm) of snowfall at JFK airport, the highest amount recorded from a single storm.^[20] There have been at least 12 tornadoes in the city since 1974.^[21]

As New York City grew into a city, the surrounding environment was altered by the growing demands of the human population. The ecosystem of New York City is consistently maintained to support a growing population in the city. In the last 400 years since the original ecological systems as researched by theMannahatta Project, the growth and development of theNew York City water supply system, theNew York City waste management system,Transportation in New York City, andFood and water in New York City has greatly altered the environment of New York City.

In 2017,CCNY entomologist and Professor of Biology David Lohman discovered a new species of fly living inCentral Park.^[22] The fly,Themira lohmanus, has evolved to only breed on duck dung.^[22]

New York's population density has environmental pros and cons. It facilitates the highestmass transit use in the United States, but also concentrates pollution.Gasoline consumption in the city is at the rate the national average was in the 1920s,^[24] andgreenhouse gas emissions are a fraction of the national average, at 7.1 metric tons per person per year, below San Francisco, at 11.2 metric tons, and the national average, at 24.5 metric tons.^[25] New York City accounts for only 1% of United States greenhouse gas emissions while housing 2.7% of its population.^[25]

New York City's waste management system is a refuse removal system primarily run by theNew York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY). The department maintains thewaste collection infrastructure and hires public and private contractors who remove the city's waste. This waste, created by New York City's population of more than eight million, can amount to more than ten thousand tons a day.^{[26][27][28][29]}

Waste management has been an issue for New York City since itsNew Amsterdam days.^[30] As a 1657 New Amsterdam ordinance states, “It has been found, that within this City of Amsterdam in New Netherland many burghers and inhabitants throw their rubbish, filth, ashes, dead animals and suchlike things into the public streets to the great inconvenience of the community".^[31][30]

TheLenape peoples who inhabited the greater NYC area directly prior toEuropean colonization cultivated the environment and land they lived on in New York City, historians believe they planted sunflowers at the edges of the maize fields alongside their villages. In addition, they relied on the many trees growing on what is now New York City for food, shelter, tool materials, fuel, and medicine.^[32] The typical Lenape house, called alonghouse, relied on the bending of the trunks taken from small trees to create a series of arches to serve as the frame.^[32] The Lenape used theZanthoxylum americanum tree as medicine for toothaches because chewing on the leaves or bark creates a tingling, or numbing effect in the mouth.^[33]

• Environmental issues in New York City
• Rats in New York City
• Food and water in New York City
• Trees of New York City
• Wildlife in the Bronx
• Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency
• Birding in New York City
• New York City Department of Environmental Protection
• Oysters in New York City

• Burnstein. Daniel Eli.Next to Godliness: Confronting Dirt and Despair in Progressive Era New York City (University of Illinois Press, 2006)
• Dow, J. (2020, October 19).Environmental racism in the Bronx: Why the asthma rate is so high in the borough. PIX 11 New York.
• Glenna, Leland L. "Value-laden technocratic management and environmental conflicts: The case of the New York City watershed controversy."Science, technology, & human values 35.1 (2010): 81–112.online
• Hershkowitz, Allen.Bronx ecology: Blueprint for a new environmentalism (Island Press, 2002)online.
• Kiechle, Melanie A. "The air we breathe": nineteenth-century Americans and the search for fresh air" (PhD. Diss. Rutgers University-Graduate School-New Brunswick, 2012)online.
• Lifset, Robert D.Power on the Hudson: Storm King Mountain and the Emergence of Modern American Environmentalism (2014)
• Owen, David. "Green Manhattan."The New Yorker 80.31 (2004): 111–23.online
• Pfeffer, Max J., and J. Mayone Stycos. "Immigrant environmental behaviors in New York city."Social Science Quarterly 83.1 (2002): 64–81.
• Preston, Christopher J., and Steven H. Corey. "Public health and environmentalism: Adding garbage to the history of environmental ethics."Environmental ethics 27.1 (2005): 3-21.
• Rochard, Hugo. "Civic environmentalism and urban renaturation politics: case studies from the greater Paris and New York City."Journée du LIEPP 2021.online
• Zimring, Carl A.; Corey, Steven H., eds. (2021).Coastal Metropolis: Environmental Histories of Modern New York City. Pittsburgh, Pa.ISBN 978-0-8229-8798-7.OCLC 1241662670.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• STATE OF NEW YORK CITY’S PLANTS 2018 - report published by theNew York Botanical Garden's New York City EcoFlora project
• New York City Office of Environmental Coordination

• Environment of New York City
• Geography of New York City
• Environment by city

• WaPoCheckDates
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
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