Mapping shoreline adaptation projects around the Bay to inform planning
There is a recognized challenge of tracking the SF Bay’s progress towards resilience because comprehensive information about shoreline adaptation projects in the region does not exist in an easily accessible, updateable, or sharable forum. This poses a challenge to coordinating adaptation towards a regional strategy, ensuring equitable outcomes for adaptation, and communicating the region’s need for resources.
The Shoreline Adaptation Project Map (SAPMap) aims to spatially track adaptation projects, communicate regional progress on shoreline resilience goals, and support a living network of community-based partners poised to lead adaptation planning, construction, and monitoring.
The SAPMap has made progress towards these goals over the last two years by coordinating and convening regional partners, recommending and implementing technical enhancements to EcoAtlas, researching and inputting adaptation project data, and formalizing data entry requirements through existing funding and permitting programs.
In the first real proof of concept, the data collected through the SAPMap was utilized in the MTC/BCDC co-lead SLR Adaptation Funding and Investment Framework in 2023. The SAPMap will be critical in the implementation of Actions called for in Bay Adapt: Regional Strategies For a Rising Bay Action 4.
The Shoreline Adaptation Project Map (SAPMap) aims to spatially track adaptation projects, communicate regional progress on shoreline resilience goals, and support a living network of community-based partners poised to lead adaptation planning, construction, and monitoring. Extensive progress has already been made in tracking information on restoration projects, many of which include adaptation and flood risk reduction goals, utilizing the platform EcoAtlas. The models and workflows in EcoAtlas that identify, catalog, and map this information serve as a template for how information about other adaptation efforts can be included and integrated with restoration tracking to develop a comprehensive picture of shoreline adaptation.
Extensive progress has already been made in tracking information on restoration projects, many of which include adaptation and flood risk reduction goals, utilizing the platform EcoAtlas. The models and workflows in EcoAtlas that identify, catalog, and map this information serve as a template for how information about other adaptation efforts can be included and integrated with restoration tracking to develop a comprehensive picture of shoreline adaptation.
The SAPMap project list can be accessed at https://www.ecoatlas.org/groups/303. Spatial data can be exported from EcoAtlas Map Habitats Projects tool by specifying the “San Francisco Bay Adaptation” group. Finally, technical users can access the EcoAtlas API at https://www.ecoatlas.org/developers/.
In the first real proof of concept, the data collected through the SAPMap was utilized in the MTC/BCDC co-lead SLR Adaptation Funding and Investment Framework in 2023.
Special thanks to the San Francisco Estuary Institute, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Bay Area Regional Collaborative, San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Francisco Bay Joint Venture, San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority, California Coastal Conservancy, CalTrans, Coastal Hazards Adaptation Resiliency Group, San Francisco Estuary Partnership, Association of Bay Area Governments.
2021
2022
2022
2023
2024
Ongoing
Sign up for updates on the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan
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.
