A first-in-the-nation approach: San Francisco’s $25 billion plan to save itself from sea level rise

[Playinghardball]

The fog of uncertainty cast by rising seas is starting to lift from $25 billion worth of public projects planned in San Francisco.

The City by the (rising) Bay, where bayfront shorelines will continue to experience worsening high tide flooding, where the nearby international airport is among the nation’s most vulnerable to floods, and where Pacific Ocean shoreline erosion could be accelerated by sea level rise, has adopted a first-in-the-nation approach to assessing potential infrastructure risks posed by rising seas.

The new guidance, which includes a simple project checklist, will help officials incorporate sea level rise into decisions about building and upgrading everything from pipes to police stations to streets. Seas have risen 8 inches since industry started burning fossil fuels, although long-term ocean cycles have temporarily spared the West Coast from some of those impacts in recent decades. Two or three more feet of sea level rise is forecast globally this century.

“I haven’t seen anything this comprehensive,” said Jessica Grannis, the Georgetown Climate Center’s adaptation program manager, after reviewing San Francisco’s new approach. “This is pretty unique, and a cool new step forward in mainstreaming climate adaptation into city capital budgeting processes.”

The guidance was adopted last month by the city’s capital planning committee, a group of lawmakers and city officials formed nearly a decade ago to guide and prioritize byzantine capital spending by departments and agencies. According to the committee’s most recent biennial report, such spending will slightly exceed $25 billion during the next decade.

More here: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/a-first-in-the-nation-approach-san-franciscos-25-billion-plan-to-save-itself-from-sea-level-rise/

[hunter]

1. Let's build a dam under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Nah, just kidding.

[truedelphi]

2. However I am bookmarking yr idea, because if anyone else in

The SF Bay area comes up with anything similar, it might well be to build a dam under the new Bay Bridge, which happens to be continually falling apart. (Bolts sliding loose, due to not being welded right, pavement sinking in, and more. And it only cost like a gazillion dollars.)

So the Golden Gate bridge it should be!

[yawnmaster]

3. If it rises enough, they won't need those suicide nets on the Golden Gate! eom