Ensuring governments and communities across the region are working together to achieve consistent standards for shared adaptation success.
Rising sea levels from climate change are already encroaching along our shorelines and will only accelerate in the coming decades. The impacts of sea level rise – and resources to plan and prepare for them – are unevenly distributed across the nine-county Bay Area. If everyone “goes it alone,” we risk maladaptation – catastrophic consequences such as unintentional flooding of our neighbors, leaving behind communities most at risk and with the least resources to adapt, the loss of our essential and invaluable coastal habitats, and missing out on opportunities to find shared solutions that benefit both local communities and the region as a whole.
The Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan is a region-wide plan for the Bay shoreline that guides the creation of coordinated, locally-planned sea level rise adaptation actions that work together to meet regional goals.
The Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan will set the region on a path towards more coordinated and consistent local adaptation planning that advances our shared goals together. The Regional Shoreline Plan Adaptation will be collaboratively developed and include:
You can find more information in our two-pager overview here.
The Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan is being guided and developed by a broad range range of stakeholders. This includes:
The Regional Shoreline Plan Advisory Group includes key individuals that provide subject matter expertise across core topics of the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan. Members of the Advisory Group include:
^Individuals who signified they are not representing their agency/organization in an official capacity.
In 2021, BCDC adopted the Bay Adapt Joint Platform – endorsed by over 55 cities, counties, non-profits, and more – lays out the actions necessary to protect the region from rising sea levels. The Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan is an implementing project of the Joint Platform and will serve as a model for the State of California for how numerous jurisdictions across a shared region can work together to achieve coordinated planning and implementation for resilience.
Over 130 members of the public joined the first Public Workshop for the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan (RSAP) Guidelines. This meeting included presentations and virtual breakout room to discuss draft visions for Bay Area sea level rise adaptation. Meeting materials are available here:
– Want to learn more about the RSAP?
– How are we building on existing Bay Area work?
– What is SB272, the Laird Bill, and how does it affect our work?
Check out the newest video on the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan “Rising Sea Level and the Bay Area: Our Region’s Shared Challenge and Opportunity here.
We are excited to share the Working Version of the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan (RSAP)’s One Bay Vision! Developed through input from communities across the Bay, members of our expert Advisory Group, and research to build upon existing regional visions, the One Bay Vision lays the foundation for what a more resilient future can look like.
Read the Working Draft One Bay Vision to learn more about what communities we visited and to read the Vision statements! This vision will guide the RSAP project in the development of guidelines for local subregional plans.
January 2023
February - June 2023
July - October 2023
November 2023 -
February 2025
March - July 2024
August - September
2024
Anticipated October - November
2024
Contact Jaclyn Mandoske (Senior Climate Adaptation Planner)
In the Bay Area, social equity and sea level rise are inextricably tied. Marginalized communities such as San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood, East Palo Alto, and the flatlands of Oakland sit right on the Bay’s shoreline.
The Bay Area is a beautiful, diverse place. The region’s communities have many different priorities, including building affordable housing, cleaning up shoreline contamination, restoring tidal wetlands, and more.
A Student’s View of the Shoreline Add page content here. I spent this summer as BCDC’s Adapting to Rising Tides Summer 2023 Intern with California State University’s Council of Ocean
Sea level rise will impact all Bay Area shoreline communities, but it will hit some harder and faster. This includes San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood, which is one of the region’s most vulnerable communities.
The Bay Area faces an immense challenge with climate change. By 2100, the region could experience up to seven feet of sea level rise along its approximately 1,000-mile shoreline. However, this challenge also presents our region with an opportunity for profound change.
These days, the world of sea level rise adaptation in the Bay Area feels busier than ever. Just within Bay Adapt, many projects are underway to implement the tasks in the Joint Platform and many others are being planned. We have leadership groups, stakeholder groups, new staff, new partners, and many everyday successes and challenges.
