Delaware Canal 21, a regional nonprofit dedicated to addressing chronic flooding along the historic Delaware Canal corridor, engaged a team of consultants led by ESI to evaluate governance and management options. The Delaware Canal is a historically significant 190-year-old canal system with defunct industrial infrastructure. Following three consecutive years of devastating flooding, the organization needed a rigorous analysis of the feasibility, costs, and benefits of establishing a new multi-jurisdictional entity to take over management of the Canal system and raise funds to advance a resilient stormwater management solution.
ESI led the economic analysis component of the multi-disciplinary project team, evaluating the economic, environmental, and public safety benefits of a capital infrastructure investment to restructure the canal. ESI quantified the economic impacts of capital construction and ongoing maintenance expenditures using impact modeling to demonstrate local economic activity generation. ESI also conducted a comparative analysis of alternative governance and management mechanisms to identify the most feasible path forward for the multi-jurisdictional partnership, including estimates of potential revenues across different models.
The analysis built a compelling public case for investment in canal infrastructure improvement by quantifying shared economic, environmental, and public safety benefits. The comparative governance analysis provided Delaware Canal 21 with a structured decision-support tool to advance consensus among the multiple jurisdictions involved. Visually compelling deliverables were designed to support ongoing public outreach and stakeholder engagement efforts critical to achieving the multi-jurisdictional support required to move the project forward.
ESI produced a comprehensive infrastructure management analysis report and executive summary, including comparative governance analysis and economic impact modeling of capital investment scenarios. Findings were packaged in a graphically rich full report and executive summary designed for public outreach and stakeholder engagement across the multi-jurisdictional region.