San Francisco's Mission Bay Provides a Case Study for Sea-Level Rise

"San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood might need large levees or a tidal barrier to help protect it from the impacts of sea level rise in coming decades," reports John King.

That conclusion is drawn from a study by SPUR and several local and regional partners, released at the end of September. King describes the significance of the study:

The 80-page study is billed as “an imaginative exercise” and consists of design concepts rather than formal recommendations. Still, the emphasis on eventually altering the shoreline — one concept would turn Mission Creek into a lake — is a strong signal that local government sees the tidal aspects of climate change not as a distant possibility, but as a likelihood that needs to be planned for now.

Kind provides more details on specific recommendations from the study, many of which might seem "outlandish" to his audience in San Francisco. Many of the most ambitious proposals, however, have antecedents in cities like Tokyo and London, however. The themes of all these proposed solutions is a need to rethink the regional approach to the San Francisco Bay, considering both environmental and infrastructural concerns.