The coastal domino effect: Scaling system-based resilience from the Great Lakes

In this insight, our experts discuss how the lessons learned from a years-long, state-backed program can be scaled outside of New York’s Great Lakes region.

Government & Public

Resilient societies

Across the Great Lakes, resilience is no longer defined by isolated shoreline projects. It is increasingly understood as a connected system, where flooding, erosion, sediment movement, and infrastructure performance are closely interlinked. New York’s Lake Ontario Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative (REDI) demonstrates how environmental consultants are beginning to address this complexity through system-based planning and delivery.

At its core, this approach recognizes a fundamental truth: coastal systems behave like domino chains. When one element shifts, whether through shoreline reinforcement, altered sediment flow, or flood management, impacts ripple across the system. Recent extreme water levels on Lake Ontario made this dynamic visible at scale, exposing both community vulnerability and the limits of traditional, site-specific solutions.

The key lesson learned was that engagement must be genuine. It comes down to building real relationships, supported by credible information, and showing up with a genuine commitment to help people solve them, especially when they’re dealing with real impacts like flooding. These efforts to build trust in the process and help people think and act beyond their personal interests along the shoreline.

Anthony Eallonardo

Senior Technical Manager, Water Infrastructure & Climate Adaptation

A system-based response to shoreline risk

Between 2017 and 2019, Lake Ontario and its connected waterways experienced prolonged high water levels driven by basin-wide rainfall and constrained downstream outflows. The impacts were widespread: homes, roads, marinas, and parks were damaged; natural shoreline systems degraded; and waterfront-dependent economies were disrupted. These events revealed not just the severity of climate-driven risk, but the interconnected nature of system failure. Infrastructure designed to protect individual sites proved insufficient when broader hydrological and shoreline processes were under stress. In many cases, interventions in one location shifted impacts elsewhere, reinforcing that isolated solutions can redistribute risk rather than reduce it.

In response, New York State launched REDI as a coordinated effort to rebuild and strengthen shorelines across Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, and the Lower Niagara River. The initiative marked a shift from reactive recovery to proactive resilience planning, integrating environmental, economic, and community priorities.

Ramboll supported this effort alongside the New York State Office of General Services, the Governor’s Office, 11 state agencies, and local communities. We leveraged our multidisciplinary expertise in environment, biodiversity, climate resilience, and water to help develop the system-wide approach, with over 100 Ramboll employees working on the project by completion. Together with our partners, we developed plans and identified 132 priority projects across five regions.

Stakeholder engagement and input was critical to this process. Ramboll facilitated 50 stakeholder meetings, along with planning sessions and site visits, to ensure local knowledge informed project decisions. This approach aligned technical solutions with community priorities and built consensus around trade-offs and long-term goals—an essential condition for lasting resilience.

Another major outcome of REDI was recognizing the critical role of sediment management in shoreline resilience. Rather than treating dredged material as waste, the initiative emphasized its reuse as part of a broader system strategy. Through the Regional Dredging Program, sediment from harbors and navigation channels was repurposed for beach nourishment, bluff stabilization, and habitat creation. Much of this material was beneficially reused, reducing disposal needs while strengthening natural defenses.

Designing for scale in connected coastal systems

The Great Lakes experience shows that resilience is not just about stronger infrastructure, but about designing systems that can adapt to change. The REDI model is valuable not only for addressing immediate risks, but as a scalable framework for other regions.

Three key lessons stand out:

1. Build systems, not projects

Resilience must move beyond individual projects to system-wide frameworks. REDI succeeded by evaluating risk across more than 500 assets using a shared methodology and prioritizing actions within a unified structure. Strong state leadership ensured coordination, while local input assured that solutions reflected site-specific needs.

2. Turn data and engagement into decisions

Scalable resilience requires making complex information usable and grounding it in meaningful engagement. REDI translated technical data into clear tools that helped communities and decision-makers align on priorities. Engagement built on transparency, credibility, and follow-through ensured that both the process and outcomes were trusted.

3. Design for delivery at scale

Scalability depends on execution. REDI supported communities with engineering, alternatives analysis, and cost development, while leveraging program scale to achieve system-wide benefits like coordinated dredging and sediment reuse. Aligning funding, governance, and delivery mechanisms with project goals enabled implementation at scale.

Pairing top-down coordination with bottom-up ownership can unlock broader system benefits

Scaling resilience is not about replicating a single project or solution; it is about building a delivery model that combines strong leadership, genuine stakeholder engagement, and the ability to translate priorities into implementable work. That means grounding decisions in system-level understanding, supporting communities with credible data and technical capacity, and ensuring follow-through so that engagement leads to real outcomes, not just conversation.

In that sense, the Great Lakes are not an outlier but a proving ground. The approach demonstrated through REDI can be adapted well beyond the region. The opportunity now is to carry those lessons forward, applying them to other coastlines and watersheds, and ensuring that resilience efforts strengthen not just individual assets, but the connected systems and communities that depend on them.