The Coastal Resilience & Mitigation division of Parallel Group brings architecture, planning, engineering, and policy together to help communities prepare for — and recover from — the realities of a changing coast.
"Almost two-thirds of New Jersey's coastline is already at high or very high risk to coastal erosion. Over half a million acres of New Jersey land are highly vulnerable to coastal hazards."
For generations, communities have been built on the assumption that the coast would stay where it was. That assumption no longer holds. Sea levels are rising. Storms are intensifying. The flooding that once came once a generation now comes every few years — or every season.
Superstorm Sandy in 2012 was a watershed moment for the Mid-Atlantic region, costing over $70 billion in damage and displacing thousands of families across New Jersey alone. It was not an anomaly. It was a preview. Hurricanes Ida and Henri followed, delivering inland flooding that had never been seen before — in communities that weren't even coastal.
The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that 62,000 homes in New Jersey alone may face chronic flooding within the next 30 years. New Jersey leads the nation in the number of commercial properties at risk within that same timeframe. The challenge is not abstract or distant. It is here, and it is now — and it demands an integrated, professional response.
The Coastal Resilience & Mitigation division of Parallel Group was formed to be part of that response: bringing together the disciplines of architecture, coastal design, environmental planning, and community engagement to serve the people, municipalities, and institutions working to build a more resilient future.
The science is clear and the physical evidence is mounting along every coastline in America. Sea levels are rising, storms are intensifying, rainfall patterns are shifting, and the land itself is changing faster than our built environment was designed to adapt. Understanding these forces is the first step toward working with them — rather than against them.
Sea level rise is not uniform. The northeast U.S. coast is experiencing some of the fastest rates in the world — up to 3–4 times the global average — due to land subsidence and changes in ocean currents. NJDEP's REAL rules now require construction to account for both current flood levels and projected inundation by 2100, creating a new Inundation Risk Zone for areas expected to be permanently or regularly flooded within this century.
Source: NJDEP REAL Rule Overview, 2026; USACE Sea-Level Change Technical GuidanceWarmer oceans fuel stronger storms with more rainfall. Hurricanes that once struck every 50–100 years are now arriving every decade. Hurricane Sandy, once considered a one-in-500-year event, has been followed by Ida, Henri, and a string of damaging nor'easters. The Army Corps of Engineers' North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study — a two-year initiative launched after Sandy — found that without intervention, flood damages to the region's 900 miles of coastline will compound dramatically as climate change accelerates.
Source: USACE North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study, 2015; NJ Climate Change Resilience Strategy, 2021The flooding crisis is not confined to coastlines. A third study by the New Jersey State Climatologist and Rutgers University showed that NJ's annual precipitation has significantly increased since rainfall records began. Hurricane Ida's inland flooding devastated communities along the Raritan, Passaic, and other river corridors that had never previously flooded. Florida's Resilient Florida Program now addresses both coastal and inland flooding in its statewide planning — a model NJ and other states are actively following.
Source: NJDEP 309 Assessment & Strategy, 2026; NJ State Climatologist / Rutgers University StudyClimate risk is not distributed equally. Low-income communities, communities of color, and communities with aging infrastructure face disproportionately high exposure to flooding — and disproportionately limited resources to respond. New Jersey's REAL rules, the Army Corps' Back Bays Coastal Storm Risk Management study, and state programs like HMF and HARP all explicitly prioritize overburdened and socially vulnerable populations. Resilience planning that doesn't address equity isn't resilience at all.
Source: NJ Resilient NJ Program; NJDEP Climate Resilience Strategy Priority 1; USACE Back Bays CSRM StudySalt marshes, tidal wetlands, barrier islands, and living shorelines are nature's own coastal defense systems. As these ecosystems erode — from development pressure, rising seas, and changing sediment dynamics — communities lose their first line of protection. Monmouth University's Urban Coast Institute, which has led oyster reef restoration, living shoreline, and tidal marsh recovery work across New Jersey, has documented the measurable flood-buffering effects of restored coastal ecosystems — benefits that engineered structures alone cannot replicate.
Source: Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute Coastal Community Resilience Initiative, 2025The cost of resilience investment is dwarfed by the cost of inaction. FEMA's own data shows that every $1 invested in flood mitigation saves an average of $4–$7 in future disaster costs. The Texas General Land Office has documented that proactive coastal management — beach nourishment, living shorelines, surge barriers — consistently outperforms reactive disaster recovery on both economic and human terms. For families, property values, insurance costs, and displacement risk all turn on whether communities invest before the next storm, or after it.
Source: Texas GLO Coastal Planning; FEMA Mitigation ROI Data; Florida Resilient Florida Program FY2025-26Too often, communities treat flood mitigation and long-term resilience as separate problems addressed by separate agencies with separate budgets. They are not. They are complementary halves of a complete strategy — and the most effective coastal communities in America are those that pursue them together.
Resilience is a community's capacity to anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and recover from the impacts of climate-related hazards. It is not just the ability to withstand a storm — it is the ability to bounce forward after one, emerging stronger and better prepared for the next.
New Jersey's Resilient NJ program — which has helped communities secure $26.5 million in new federal funding since 2021 — defines resilience planning as the development of actionable regional plans that integrate vulnerability assessment, scenario-based planning, cost-benefit analysis, and community engagement. The Army Corps of Engineers' North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study defines resilient coastal systems as those that are "resilient, redundant, robust, and adaptable" — requiring multiple lines of defense, not a single engineered solution.
Resilience planning acknowledges that the coast will change — and designs communities that can change with it, rather than fighting the inevitable at great cost.
Mitigation is the set of physical, structural, and policy actions taken to reduce the impact of hazards before they occur. It is the elevation of a home above flood level. It is the construction of a pump station that keeps streets dry during heavy rain. It is the acquisition of a flood-prone property before it becomes a disaster site. It is the installation of a living shoreline that absorbs wave energy before it reaches someone's foundation.
The Texas General Land Office's Coastal Resiliency Master Plan — a model increasingly referenced by states nationwide — treats mitigation as a portfolio of investments: green infrastructure, engineered solutions, land use policy, and community-level hardening, all working together. Florida's Resilient Florida Program funds both vulnerability assessments and implementation projects, recognizing that knowing the risk and acting on it are equally essential steps.
Effective mitigation is not reactive — it is anticipatory. It protects property, preserves community fabric, and reduces the human cost of disasters before they happen.
Communities that plan well but don't act end up with excellent documents and ongoing damage. Planning without implementation leaves people and property vulnerable even when the risks are well understood. Resilience plans without mitigation investment are wishes, not strategies.
Projects built without long-term resilience thinking can solve today's problem while creating tomorrow's. A seawall that protects one neighborhood can increase flooding next door. Infrastructure built to today's standards may be inadequate for conditions two decades from now. Physical mitigation must be embedded in a resilience framework to remain effective.
"The consequences of storms can be reduced in part through ensuring continued delivery of the beneficial ecosystem services that help mitigate storm impacts. Coastal resilience will require a combination of measures creating multiple lines of defense that are resilient, redundant, robust, and adaptable."
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive StudyCoastal resilience is a shared responsibility — but different stakeholders face different challenges, navigate different funding streams, and need different kinds of support. The Coastal Resilience & Mitigation division of Parallel Group is structured to serve each of them with focused expertise.
Local governments are on the front lines of climate risk — and often the most under-resourced to respond.
Mayors and municipal engineers know their communities' flooding problems better than anyone. What they often lack is the planning infrastructure, grant expertise, technical capability, and interdisciplinary design support needed to translate that knowledge into funded, built projects. Parallel Group's Coastal Resilience & Mitigation division bridges that gap.
We work with municipalities across the full project lifecycle: from initial vulnerability assessment and hazard planning through grant application support, design development, and construction administration. We understand the programs — Resilient NJ, FEMA BRIC, HMF, RCP, CDBG-DR — and we know how to position communities to compete successfully for them.
Parallel Group has deep relationships with NJDEP's Office of Climate Resilience, NJ DCA's Division of Disaster Recovery and Mitigation, and the funding ecosystem that serves New Jersey's 239 coastal and flood-risk communities. We speak the language of government procurement — and we know which doors to knock on.
State agencies need design, planning, and technical partners who understand how programs are built — not just how they're applied for.
New Jersey's Office of Climate Resilience, the Division of Disaster Recovery and Mitigation, and the Blue Acres program are among the most active state climate adaptation agencies in the nation. They are actively managing billions in federal CDBG-DR and FEMA funds — and they need professional services firms that bring both technical expertise and program fluency.
Parallel Group's Coastal Resilience & Mitigation division is positioned to support state agencies as a design and planning partner — not just a vendor. We understand the policy context: the REAL rules, the Resilient NJ planning framework, the HMF program structure, and the legislative pipeline moving through Trenton. We can help translate state priorities into implementable projects at the community level.
Parallel Group maintains active relationships with key stakeholders across NJ state government. Our team understands the DPMC procurement process, QBS requirements, and the pre-qualification system that governs professional services contracting at the state level.
For families, coastal resilience is not an abstraction — it is the safety of their home and the security of their community.
Tens of thousands of New Jersey homeowners are navigating the intersection of stricter flood elevation requirements, rising insurance costs, and access to state and federal mitigation programs they may not even know exist. The NJPACT REAL rules — now mandating that coastal homes be elevated 4 feet above base flood elevation — have created both a regulatory challenge and an opportunity for families to access grant funding that was previously unavailable.
Parallel Group helps families understand their options, navigate the programs available to them, and access the design and construction services they need. We can support a homeowner from initial consultation through completed, certified elevation.
NJ DCA's Housing Mitigation Fund and HARP program have combined resources to serve hundreds of homeowners across the state. With REAL rules now in effect, thousands more properties will require elevation compliance — and Parallel Group is positioned to serve as the design partner that helps families meet those requirements and access available funding.
Academic institutions are essential partners in building the knowledge base that makes coastal resilience possible — and they need design partners who speak both science and practice.
Monmouth University's Urban Coast Institute has spent two decades building the scientific foundation for coastal resilience in New Jersey — from storm surge modeling to living shoreline restoration to environmental justice research. The UCI's Coastal Community Resilience Initiative brings scientists, local decision-makers, citizens, and policy experts together to develop actionable, science-based solutions. They are invaluable partners — and Parallel Group is uniquely positioned to help translate that science into built environments.
We work with universities and research institutions as design and implementation partners on federally funded resilience projects, student research initiatives, and demonstration projects. We value the peer-reviewed rigor that academic partners bring — and we bring the design, permitting, and construction expertise to take research off the page and into the ground.
Parallel Group's proximity to the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute — the Shark River Basin's designated Resilient NJ community partner — positions us as a natural design collaborator for UCI-led and UCI-partnered projects in the Monmouth County coastal region.
The Coastal Resilience & Mitigation division of Parallel Group brings an integrated suite of services — from early-stage planning through design, construction administration, and post-project evaluation. We don't hand off work between departments. We stay with it.
We help municipalities and regional coalitions develop actionable climate resilience plans: vulnerability assessments, hazard analysis, scenario-based planning, benefit-cost analysis, and community engagement processes aligned with NJDEP Resilient NJ, FEMA, and HUD requirements.
Architecture and design for coastal conditions — elevated residential, commercial, and civic structures; resilient infrastructure; living shorelines; public waterfront design. Every project accounts for sea level rise, storm surge, NJPACT REAL compliance, and the specific conditions of its site.
The funding landscape for coastal resilience is rich but complex — FEMA, HUD, NOAA, Army Corps, state DCA, and DEP programs all overlap. We help clients identify the right programs, develop competitive applications, and navigate the full grant lifecycle from pre-application through closeout.
Full-service residential elevation design and mitigation planning under NJ's HMF, HARP, and MAP programs. We coordinate FEMA Elevation Certificates, NJPACT REAL compliance, structural engineering, permitting, and construction oversight — serving both individual homeowners and municipalities managing large portfolio programs.
Living shorelines, oyster reef structures, bioretention systems, tidal marsh restoration, and green infrastructure design. We design with natural systems, not against them — drawing on the science of Monmouth University's Urban Coast Institute and the engineering practice of our affiliated firms to deliver solutions that work ecologically and structurally.
Resilience is built community by community. We facilitate public charrettes, stakeholder engagement processes, environmental justice consultations, and community education initiatives that give residents agency in the decisions that shape their future — a requirement of NOAA, HUD, and FEMA programs, and a value we hold independently of any grant requirement.
The best approaches to coastal resilience are being developed right now — in state capitals, at university research centers, in federal agencies, and in the communities on the water's edge. Parallel Group stays current with this national conversation, bringing the best practices from across the country to the communities we serve.
New Jersey's Resilient NJ program pairs multidisciplinary consulting teams with regional municipal coalitions to develop actionable resilience plans. Since 2021, participating communities have secured $26.5 million in new federal funding for implementation. The program is now expanding — with six active regions including the newly designated Shark River Basin in Monmouth County — and will fund up to four additional regions by 2027.
in new federal funding secured by Resilient NJ communities since 2021
The Army Corps' North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study — covering Virginia to Maine — established the gold standard framework for coastal resilience: structural measures (beach nourishment, levees, surge barriers), non-structural measures (property acquisition, elevation), and nature-based solutions, all working together as a system. The Corps' $7.65 billion Back Bays Coastal Storm Risk Management study is now in active development for New Jersey's coastal back-bay communities — the largest federal coastal investment in NJ history.
USACE Back Bays CSRM study scope — home elevations, critical facility floodproofing, coastal restoration
Founded in 2005 and sharpened by Hurricane Sandy's direct impact on the Monmouth University campus, the UCI's Coastal Community Resilience Initiative is one of the nation's leading models for connecting academic science with community action. From oyster reef restoration to environmental DNA monitoring to sea level rise impact modeling, UCI research directly informs the resilience plans and implementation projects of coastal communities across New Jersey and the Mid-Atlantic.
years of applied coastal resilience research serving NJ communities
Florida's Resilient Florida Program — established in 2021 as the state's largest-ever investment in resilience — provides a national model for systematic, statewide flood resilience investment. The 2025–2026 program invested $208 million, including $150 million for implementation projects and $52 million for design and planning. The program manages over 4 million acres of submerged lands, 825 miles of sandy coastline, and 41 aquatic preserves — demonstrating the scale of commitment required to protect coastal communities at a state level.
invested in Florida's 2025–2026 resilience implementation cycle alone
Texas's Coastal Resiliency Master Plan — a living, iterative planning document updated regularly by the GLO in coordination with a broad Technical Advisory Committee — is among the nation's most sophisticated state-led coastal planning frameworks. The plan treats the Texas coast as an integrated system of natural environments and built infrastructure, identifying priority projects across habitat restoration, shoreline stabilization, erosion mitigation, and community hardening. The GLO's CEPRA, GOMESA, and CMP grant programs fund $3M+ projects selected from the Master Plan's priority list.
average coastal erosion rate in Texas — with mitigation saving $4 in future costs for every $1 invested
NJ DCA's DDRM manages some of the most complex and consequential mitigation programs in the country — HARP, HMF, MAP, and the Resilient Communities Program — distributing FEMA and HUD CDBG-DR funds directly to municipalities and homeowners. With $228 million in CDBG-DR funds already in the state's treasury, and programs expanding to serve the coastal communities of Ocean and Monmouth Counties, DCA is building the implementation infrastructure that will serve NJ families for the next decade.
in HUD CDBG-DR funds in NJ treasury for flood mitigation and home resilience programs
Parallel Architectural Group has spent years building relationships in the communities we serve — with municipal leaders, state agencies, federal partners, academic institutions, and the families who live on the water's edge. The Coastal Resilience & Mitigation division formalizes and deepens that commitment.
We are not a large national firm parachuting in with generic solutions. We are a local firm that understands Long Branch, Belmar, Neptune, Asbury Park, and the communities of the Jersey Shore — their politics, their personalities, their flooding problems, and their aspirations. That local knowledge, combined with a rigorous understanding of national best practices and funding programs, is what makes us effective.
We work across the full project lifecycle: from the first conversation with a municipal administrator about a Resilient NJ application, through design development and agency approval, to construction closeout and post-occupancy evaluation. We stay with our clients because we are genuinely invested in the outcomes — not just the deliverables.
Our network of affiliated firms — in engineering, construction, environmental services, and surveying — means we can assemble the right team for every project, at every scale, without losing the coordination and accountability that comes from working with a single trusted partner.
Rooted in the Monmouth County coastal community — with existing relationships across NJ state agencies, municipal governments, and the academic institutions that study our coast.
Architecture, planning, engineering, environmental services, construction, and survey — all available through Parallel Group's affiliated network, coordinated under a single project team.
We speak the language of CDBG-DR, FEMA BRIC, Resilient NJ, HMF, and HARP — and we know how to position our clients to compete successfully for the programs that can fund their projects.
We build our work on the best available science — including the research of Monmouth University's Urban Coast Institute, NJDEP, NOAA, and the Army Corps of Engineers — and we bring that science to bear on practical, implementable solutions.
We believe coastal resilience must serve everyone — not just those who can afford it. Our work prioritizes the overburdened and socially vulnerable communities that face the greatest risk and have the fewest resources to respond.
Whether you're a municipality preparing a Resilient NJ application, a homeowner navigating REAL rule compliance, a state agency seeking a planning partner, or a university looking for a design collaborator — we'd like to talk.