San Francisco Studies How to Stay Dry
The oldest continually operating tidal gauge in the Americas indicates that the waters of San Francisco Bay have risen 8 inches in the past century. That gradual rise is nothing compared to the predicted rise of an additional 1 1/2 feet by 2050 and 6 feet by 2100. Due to such a sea surge, "land equivalent in area to six San Franciscos could regularly flood, inundating vast swaths of the region's airports, high-tech campuses and the homes of more than 100,000 residents, according to the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission."
"Ultimately," reports James Temple, "there are few good options for confronting this challenge."
"'There are two reactions to dealing with sea level rise; there is fight and there is flight,'" said Will Travis, senior adviser to the Bay Area Joint Policy Committee, which coordinates planning efforts among regional agencies." According to Temple, "planners studying this issue believe that the realities of time, finances, politics and lethargy may force the region to make hard choices about what to protect, what to abandon and what level of risk the region is willing to live with."
Although some believe we don't know enough about the Bay Area's long-term vulnerabilities to seriously consider major protection projects, the reality is that "areas along San Francisco's Embarcadero, Peninsula beaches and, of course, Richardson Bay are already flooding with growing frequency."
"This won't be a problem that starts in 2050;" says Temple, "it's here, and will get worse over time."
Topics
- A Comedian's Brutal Takedown of Public Transportation's Failures
- The Dark Side of the Rust Belt Revival
- Atlanta Pedestrian Bridge—Not a Good Example of Public Dollars Well Spent
- A New Kind of Planning Controversy: the Emoji House
- Mobility Data: How Your Travel Patterns Could Inform Policy
- As Cities Densify, New Building Design Strategies Keep Them Livable
- New Paper: Exclusionary Is a National Problem in Need of Federal Action
- New D.C. Development Guidelines Require More Consideration of Walkability
- Train Travel Gains Popularity as 'Flight Shame' Trends in Europe
- What's Behind Copenhagen's Success as a Cycling City?
- Three Ways Cities Can Combat Extreme Heat
- Automakers Required to Increase EV Sales in Colorado
- Texas Program Pays Landowners to Leave Coastal Lands Untouched
- Another Automaker Shows Interest in California Deal on Auto Emissions
- An Affordable Housing Investment Guide for Nonprofit Hospitals and Health Systems
- In the Housing Market, a Few Decades Makes a Huge Difference
- Former L.A. Planning Director Admits to Ethics Violation
- The 'War on Cars' Is a Bad Joke
- Demystifying Mass Timber
- On Public Transit, Some of the World’s Best Sightseeing
