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Eastwick: From Recovery to Resilience

Eastwick Flood Resilience Strategy

The Office of Sustainability is working with Eastwick residents and other partners to reduce current and future flood risk in Eastwick. This project will coordinate multiple flood mitigation efforts taking place in Eastwick.

Overview

The Eastwick Flood Resilience Strategy planning process started in the fall of 2024 and will last through 2025. It’s a community-driven effort to draft a plan to reduce current and future flooding impacts in Eastwick. The strategy will include different flood resilience measures to address flooding in Eastwick from three sources:

  • Darby and Cobbs creeks (river).
  • The ocean (coastal).
  • Storm sewer overflows.

Flood resilience measures are tools we can use to reduce the impacts of flooding. Different measures can be used to address different kinds of flooding. Examples include:

  • Building structures to prevent flooding.
  • Using features that help absorb floodwaters.
  • Relocating homes away from flood-prone areas.

Creating the strategy

To create the best possible outcomes in Eastwick, we’re exploring flood resilience measures like:

  • Levees and berms: Building barriers to contain or redirect water.
  • Storm sewer improvements: Expanding drainage infrastructure that can remove water faster.
  • Voluntary buyouts and relocation: Buying flood-prone properties from interested homeowners, then returning the land to natural use.
  • Nature-based solutions: Restoring wetlands to absorb more flood water and improve resilience.

While we’re exploring many measures as part of the strategy, not all will be suitable for the Eastwick community. The final strategy will combine the measures that work best in Eastwick.

The strategy will take time to plan and construct. In the meantime, the City is working on a near-term flood barrier project to address current flood impacts.

Partners and community engagement

The final flood resilience scenarios will be selected with community input. Many partners will be involved in putting these measures in place.

The Flood Mitigation Council of Eastwick (FMCE) and the Office of Sustainability are co-creating the Eastwick Flood Resilience Strategy. The FMCE is made up of neighborhood residents who meet monthly to give input on the flood strategy design.

A team of experts, led by the engineering firm Arcadis, is leading the technical work. They are developing designs with guidance from the FMCE the Eastwick community.

The project is funded by a combination of grants, including from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the William Penn Foundation.

Get involved

Want to join the effort? Send us an email at eastwick@phila.gov.

Documents

We’re collecting all the research, concepts, and stakeholders under one plan so that the Eastwick community can provide direct input into the path forward. You can follow along with the project using these resources.


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