Transforming Hoboken’s Shoreline for a More Resilient Future
As Earth Day highlights the importance of protecting and restoring the environment, Stevens is bringing that commitment to life by supporting a transformative, first-of-its-kind living shoreline project in its urban hometown
Roughly 14 percent of the shorelines worldwide have been developed — and in New Jersey, that number jumps to 34 percent. Unfortunately, the stabilizing bulkheads and seawalls often used in that construction can damage local ecosystems.
In search of more sustainable solutions, the state is nurturing a new focus on living shorelines and nature-based Solutions (NbS), and Stevens Institute of Technology is integral to this groundbreaking — even better, ground-preserving — approach.
In the university’s hometown of Hoboken, the Weehawken Cove Restoration and Maritime Park projects, both on the Hudson River, are set to become two of the state’s first large-scale urban living shoreline initiatives. Created to advance community resilience and ecological health, this project also presents a unique opportunity for Stevens to provide expert consulting, monitoring and research for the project while offering an exceptional hands-on learning experience for students.
Shoring up the Jersey shoreline — naturally
The Weehawken Cove Restoration project extends the state’s vision for living shorelines beyond traditional beach towns such as Barnegat Bay and Raritan Bay into a space-constrained, flood-prone urban environment.
Despite the challenges, the project still aligns with living shoreline principles Stevens has developed for the state. These include restoring natural areas, integrating resilient and adaptive strategies and incorporating comprehensive monitoring efforts. It also uses nearly all of the research team’s recommended design elements, including alternative materials, increased surface roughness, water retention, slope reduction, and curvature introduction.
Stevens, a pioneer in coastal engineering, has advised on the project’s early conceptual designs and is poised to play a role in its long-term monitoring and research around its structural stability and ecological impact.
"This project provides an amazing opportunity for our students and researchers to apply their expertise in an urban setting," said Jon Miller, research associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering at Stevens. "Our ability to collect and analyze real-time data will be instrumental in understanding how these restoration techniques perform over time."
The project represents a new frontier in urban coastal resilience.
"The innovation isn’t just in a single method," Miller explained. "It’s in the totality of the project, the location and how multiple techniques are being applied to restore a more natural shoreline."
A classroom on the coast
Beyond its environmental impact, the Weehawken Cove Restoration will serve as an invaluable educational resource. Stevens offers one of the nation’s first dedicated courses focused on living shorelines, and this project has the potential to become a living laboratory where students can engage in real-world coastal engineering challenges right in their backyard.
"Our students will engage with this project through our Living Shorelines class, and we also see opportunities to integrate it into other courses, including Coastal and Floodplain Management," Miller noted. "Beyond that, we’d love to incorporate it into Stevens’ high school outreach programs such as the Art Harper Saturday Academy, providing local students with hands-on exposure to the possibilities of designing, building and restoring environments such as this."
Waves of coastal improvements on the horizon
The finished restoration of Weehawken Cove is expected to be a space that resembles a natural coastline and tidal pools that are welcoming to birds, fish, plants and other native species, plus a recreational area for the community on the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway.
Similar nature-based shoreline projects are now being planned for locations such as Jersey City’s Liberty State Park, Little Ferry and Camden.
"What’s great about this approach is that resilience isn’t achieved by just building a concrete wall to keep water out," Miller said. "Instead, it integrates natural systems, attracts marine life, restores the shoreline and enhances public space. It’s not just functional — it’s aesthetically and environmentally beneficial. And it doesn’t just benefit Hoboken. It serves as a scalable model for urban resilience. The lessons we learn here can be applied to cities across the country dealing with similar coastal challenges."