6 Awesome Designs To Protect Areas Hit By Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy wreaked absolute havoc on the east coast, and now several design teams have come up with plans to protect vulnerable cities from future storms.

U.S Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan just announced the winners of the "Rebuild by Design" competition, which asked designers to develop projects that would protect cities and redevelop storm-affected areas in environmentally healthy ways.

HUD has allocate $920 million to the winning concepts, which focus on New York, New Jersey, and Long Island, though the projects will need a significant amount of additional support to be put into action.

Take a closer look at the designs below.

The design team BIG received the largest amount of funds-$335 million-for their project, titled The Big "U," according to ArchDaily. The Big "U" would Manhattan by shielding it from floods with an 8-mile protective system, while also providing environmental benefits to the community.

This project, titled "New Meadowlands," was built by a team from MIT CAU, ZUS, Urbanisten. This project would expand and protect marshland between Jersey City and Newark, and create an infrastructural park that would protect the land from floods while also existing as a place for residents to gather together and enjoy the outdoors.

The Interboro Team created this project, titled "Living with the Bay," which targets Nassau County's South Shore. The project aims to add protective structures along the coast; build new marshland to reduce wave action, to improve the ecology, and to host recreational activities; use green infrastructure to reduce pollution in the north-south tributaries; and create a green corridor along Sunrise Highway by using smart streets and other technology.

Design firm OMA recognized that a comprehensive solution for storm damage was beyond their means, so they created a strategy that will tackle flood risk. Titled "Resist, Delay, Store, Discharge," their project will do just that-it will resist flood waters with coastal defense, delay floods by slowing rainwater runoff, store excess rainwater, and discharge drainage through water pumps and alternative routes.

The "Living Breakwaters" project by SCAPE/Landscape Architecture focuses on protecting Staten Island without building a wall between people and the ocean. The team will do this by putting a necklace of breakwaters in place to protect the land from flooding and erosion, while also protecting communities of sea creatures.

"Hunts Point Lifelines" is a collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania School of Design and OLIN that offers a flood protection plan for Hunts Point in the Bronx, N.Y. The team sees Hunts Point as a strong community, especially because of The Hunts Point Food Market, which is creating more than 25,000 jobs and $3 billion in economic activity. Therefore, "Hunts Point Lifelines" aims to protect this valuable resource with a locally-built levee, green roofs to help store rain, and more.