Sea Level Rise

The SAFER Bay Project is a multi-benefit, multi-jurisdictional, public-private collaboration that aims to protect critical infrastructure, protect and restore critical habitat, provide community resilience to current tidal flooding and projected sea level rise, and improve recreational access, using both engineered structures and nature based solutions for flood protection. Specifically, the project is using nature based solutions to enable the restoration of rare and historic habitats in former salt ponds. Through the Bay Adapt Joint Bay Platform, SAFER is partnering with community based organizations, such as Climate Resilient Communities, to sustain and prioritize outreach with communities most at risk.

This restoration project is the largest tidal restoration project on the west coast. The project is in the midst of restoring over 15,000 acres of industrial salt ponds to natural tidal marshes.

Seal Beach, in Southern California, is a pilot project that consists of the addition of a thin-layer (8-10 inches) of clean dredged sediments to 10 acres of a low elevation salt marsh within the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge in Orange County, CA in order to increase habitat health and address sea level rise.

Oro Loma Sanitary District in San Lorenzo, CA is removing vertical levees and putting in horizontal levees to better adapt and prepare for rising tides.

The South Bay is home to some of the lowest-lying and most vulnerable communities to sea level rise in the San Francisco Bay Area. This area is also growing rapidly without major plans for increasing housing, transit connectivity, or cooperation between jurisdictions. The South Bay Sponge is a new framework for resilience and climate adaptation in the region. The Sponge conceptualizes nature-based solutions and green infrastructure on a large scale. The design includes new landscapes for collecting, filtering, and dispersing flood waters while supporting a variety of habitats. These landscapes include ponds, marshlands, transitional and seasonal wetlands, floodable parks, and green spaces at higher elevations nearby neighborhoods and development. Led by Rebuild by Design, the project is a multi-jurisdictional vision encompassing two counties, one water district, six cities, and at least five federal agencies.

The Moffett Park Technical Plan lays out a city wide redevelopment of green infrastructure and Nature-Based Strategies that create habitats and natural corridors in order to reduce climate impacts and positively impact the community.

Bair Island in Redwood, CA is three islands in close proximity to each other that have undergone a massive restoration effort by local organizations to transform thousands of acres of salt ponds back into tidal flats.

In Deep East Oakland, the Ninth Root organization is transforming the MLK Jr. Shoreline park into a sanctuary for healing, resilience, and community connection. The project reimagines the Damon Marsh Trail as a community-driven outdoor sanctuary focused on the adaptation, restoration, and protection of the Oakland Shoreline. In partnership with Greenlining the Block, Ninth Root has advanced this vision by building a paid leadership team, shaping the trail design through community engagement, hiring professional shoreline designers and engineers to complete permit ready designs, and implementing nature-based solutions like native plant restoration.

The Bel Marin Key Restoration Project is designed to enhance and create seasonal wetlands, reestablish healthy ecosystems while protecting endangered species, and mitigate effects from the changing climate.

The Sonoma Creek Baylands Strategy was created to mitigate flooding events and reintroduce public access to the restored environment. Further benefits are protecting endangered species such as the salt marsh harvest mouse.