Report: Embarcadero Needs to Rise 7 Feet to Resist Sea-Level Rise

A bombshell report details the adaptation measures that will be necessary to keep San Francisco's Embarcadero high and dry as the climate changes and sea levels rise.

1 minute read

November 17, 2021, 9:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Embarcadero

Oscity / Shutterstock

John King reports on the reality of sea-level rise in San Francisco in a paywalled article for the San Francisco Chronicle:

San Francisco will need to elevate portions of the Embarcadero as much as 7 feet in coming decades to prepare itself for rising bay waters, according to a shoreline defense strategy taking shape at the Port of San Francisco.

King adds:

The early projects, which are forecast to take roughly a decade to design and complete, would focus on spots that are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes, as emphasized by the 2018 bond. The report doesn’t preview any of the projects to be proposed next month, but a hazards assessment by the port last year found that large portions of the seawall north of the Bay Bridge are at “high risk” in a major temblor.

More details on the Embarcadero Seawall Program, a component of the Port of San Francisco's larger Waterfront Resilience Program, is available online.

For non-paywalled news on the most recent report and its proposal for a seven-foot increase in the height of the Embarcadero, see also coverage by Melissa Colorado for NBC Bay Area and an aggregated version of King's article by Joe Kukura for SFist.

Friday, November 5, 2021 in San Francisco Chronicle

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