The Age of Designing for the 500-Year Return Period

From WaterWorld and the Dutch-Are-Doing-Very-Well Update (keep in mind, wastewater facilities are the most vulnerable and potentially most damaged in the Age of Extreme Weather Events):

"The Nassau County (New Jersey) Department of Public Works has selected a Joint Venture of consultancy ARCADIS and environmental engineers Hazen and Sawyer, P.C. to stabilize, design and rebuild wastewater collection and treatment systems which were damaged during Superstorm Sandy in October, 2012.

Expected gross revenues for ARCADIS related to this contract amount to approximately €30 million. For the next three years, ARCADIS and its JV partner will provide consulting, preliminary design, pre-construction, construction and post-construction services to mitigate the effects of future storms across five wastewater treatment plants and over 30 pump stations within the Nassau Wastewater system.

This includes extreme weather hardening designed to endure a storm event with a 500-year return period.

Superstorm Sandy was one of the worst storms to hit the region, tearing through New Jersey and New York, with damage being as widespread as North Carolina.

Estimates at the time suggested the total bill of the damage and subsequent clean-up operation could reach $20bn in total."