Stevens Institute of Technology forms strategic partnership with Langan Engineering & Environmental Services

Stevens Institute of Technology has formed a strategic partnership with Langan Engineering & Environmental Services to provide expertise related to flood mapping and deliver engineering solutions to help protect coastlines and urban areas threatened by sea level rise. Stevens is recognized as an academic authority on coastal, oceanographic, and maritime engineering and is home to the Center for Maritime Systems, which focuses on assessing, predicting, and mitigating the damage of natural and man-made disasters to coasts. Langan is an engineering firm that provides civil, geotechnical, and environmental consulting, with particular expertise in waterfront communities and port cities.

Since Hurricane Sandy caused unprecedented damage to the New York metropolitan region, Stevens faculty and Langan leaders have conferred about the many technical issues affecting real estate and development projects in the area. For example, as a result of the devastation, Advisory Base Flood Elevation Maps for the New York and New Jersey coastlines have been released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). These maps are an intermediary step to help homeowners and businesses re-build before official revised FEMA Flood Maps are issued. Stevens and Langan are well suited to help all stakeholders better understand the impact of these Advisory Base Flood Maps, interpret the new regulations stemming from their release, and provide counseling to minimize damages from severe weather incidents and predicted elevations in sea rise.

"We are honored to partner with Stevens Institute of Technology, a leader in maritime engineering as well as coastal and oceanographic studies – scientific disciplines that are incredibly important as we rebuild from Sandy and work to protect our cities and critical infrastructure for other natural disasters," says David Gockel, president/CEO, Langan. "Sea level rise is a real threat to waterfront property owners and future development along rivers, oceans, and bays. Together, we look forward to advancing our collective knowledge on this subject and to designing solutions to help our clients, friends and neighbors."

This strategic partnership will provide Langan with greater access to technical expertise in the fields of coastal flood protection and in turn will allow research derived by Stevens to be applied to properties most affected by storm surges and flooding in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Florida,  the San Francisco Bay area, and California coast. "This alliance provides the perfect synergy between an academic institution and a professional consulting firm," says Michael Bruno, dean of the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science at Stevens. "Both Langan and Stevens recognize the incontrovertible evidence that novel engineering is needed if we are to preserve our way of life while ultimately respecting the larger natural environment."

Langan and Stevens have maintained a mutually beneficial relationship for more than a decade. Langan employs more than 30 Stevens alumni, and Stevens conducts graduate school courses at Langan's Learning Center within the firm's headquarters.

Founded in 1970 and headquartered in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, Langan (www.langan.com) provides integrated site engineering and environmental consulting services for private developers, property owners, and public sector clients. Langan employs nearly 700 professionals and has regional offices in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Virginia, Florida, and California with more than 125 LEED APs.

Langan International, the firm's wholly-owned subsidiary based in New York, provides all technical disciplines from offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Athens, Doha and Istanbul.

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is a private research university situated in Hoboken, New Jersey overlooking the Manhattan skyline. Within the university's three schools and one college, more than 6,100 undergraduate and graduate students collaborate with more than 350 faculty members in an interdisciplinary, student-centric, entrepreneurial environment to advance the frontiers of science and leverage technology to confront global challenges. Stevens is home to three national research centers as well as joint research programs focused on critical industries such as healthcare, energy, finance, defense, and STEM education.