NEW YORK—In February 2009, a team of experts on the New York City Panel on Climate Change predicted that increasing temperatures as a result of global warming could cause sea levels to rise in the city, endangering its infrastructure. Now the Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center are laying plans for a solution.

The two museums announced yesterday that they have organized a major study to craft solutions to the threats posed by higher water levels that will culminate in an exhibition of the proposals called "Rising Currents" in March 2010. The museums have selected four architecture groups to participate in the project: LTL Architects, Matthew Baird Architects, nARCHITECTS, and SCAPE Studios.

Each of the groups has been assigned a different area of New York to study — including the Hudson River, Kill van Kull, Verrazano Narrows, and the Gowanus Canal. They will first conduct research into protecting those spaces from mid-November through mid-January at P.S.1, then put finishing touches on their proposals before the final exhibition at MoMA.

The program is part of P.S.1's "Free Space" program, which provides work space to different groups in exchange for a public exhibition, a sort of pop-up gallery, museum-style.