UHI Summer Research Fellowship 2022-24
In 2022, NCA was awarded a three-year New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Community Impact Grant to facilitate an educational research program analyzing the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI) around Newtown Creek. During the program, New Yorkers are given the opportunity to design their own studies regarding UHI in and around Newtown to explore field-work practice, and the use of scientific inquiry towards a real-world application and context.
NYU Air Quality Research 2021-22
Over a year-and-a-half period, NCA and the NYU Grossman School of Medicine partnered to identify air contaminants at five different sites around Newtown Creek’s industrial corridor, with the intention of better understanding linkages between local air and community health. Samples were tested for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) and Particulate Matter (PM); while the findings didn’t show elevated levels of airborne contamination, the project calls for further, longer-term testing to identify trends in pollution levels and the potential long-term effects.
Greenpoint Bioremediation Project 2016
Newtown Creek Alliance’s Greenpoint Bioremediation Project (GBP), in partnership with the newly formed NYC Urban Soils Institute (USI) at Brooklyn College’s Environmental Sciences Analytical Center (ESAC) ran a series of hands-on workshops and produced materials covering important topics such as understanding urban soils, harnessing beneficial microorganisms with compost tea and using fungi for mycoremediation.
AirCasting QVT 2012-13
Newtown Creek Alliance, in partnership with HabitatMap, received an Environmental Justice Community Impact Grant from the New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation, developed and taught a course on air quality monitoring at Queens Vocational & Technical High School (QVT), located in Sunnyside, Queens, New York City. Students used what they learned in the course to develop and execute their own air monitor plans.
Creek Speak 2010
Creek Speak is an oral history project that uses online interactive maps to present the stories of people and places near Newtown Creek.