With nearly 1500 miles of shoreline, the history of New York City has been intimately linked to the sea. Four out of five of the New York City boroughs are located on islands, which are interconnected by a large network of bridges and tunnels. New residential and commercial complexes have replaced decaying piers and factories at water's edge in Jersey City, Hoboken, and Edgewater, New Jersey. Battery Park City, lower Manhatten has risen on landfill. Beaches and coastal wetlands, provide the large regional urban population with many leisure opportunities, including swimming, fishing, boating, and hiking, as well as maintaining critical habitat for local wildlife. Barrier dunes constitute an important line of defense against destructive storm surges. Ironically, the rediscovery of the waterfront comes at a time when climate change may threaten the future of the shoreline. Rising sea levels, associated with global warming, will magnify the hazards already facing the coast: storm surges, beach erosion, and loss of wetlands.
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