Environment & Sustainability
Parks in the Bronx
Did you know that almost ¼ of the land in the Bronx is open space? What’s our largest park? It’s Pelham Bay Park in the northeast Bronx at 2,766 acres - three times the size of Central Park and extending into Westchester. Our urban open spaces provide recreational opportunities and places to relax and also support biodiversity, providing a home for a wide variety of plant and animal life.
It has become more important than ever to learn about our changing planet. How will climate change affect us? What do we know about natural hazards such as hurricanes, thunderstorms, floods, and earthquakes? How can we contribute to conserving our environment and reducing pollution? Where and why do we experience increases in economic inequality between people, regions, and countries? Explore our Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences programs. Join a class to learn more about these and many other relevant issues.
Lehman College recognizes the critical need to guide and inspire students in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Lehman's new science and research facility, part of CUNY’s Decade of the Sciences, is an important step in meeting this need. The environmentally sustainable building will become a gateway to the sciences for Bronx students and is the first in a three-phase plan to create a dedicated science campus at the College.
Research by Lehman Professor Juliana Maantay in the 1990’s found, at the time, that people living in close proximity to a major pollution source were more likely to be hospitalized for asthma. This map explores the location of air quality service requests to the City’s 311 call center and is updated daily.
The research activities of Lehman’s Laboratory for Marine and Estuarine Research (La MER) have focused on studying the aquatic environments of the Bronx, Saw Mill and East Rivers. Under the leadership of Joseph Rachlin, Professor of Biological Sciences, researchers have analyzed the community structures of both marine and freshwater fish species. Professor Rachlin and his team have also discovered and were the first to publish on the arrival of a non-native species of shrimp Palaemon macrodactylus (the oriental shrimp) to our coastal waters. La MER researchers continue to monitor this visitor to assess its impact on the native shrimp populations in our waters.
This map explores the Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) measured by counting stations on major roadways for the year 2010. The map also displays subway and bus stop locations.