Adapting to the rising sea

It is interesting to see how the experts in the United States are going about safeguarding their cities from climate change and rising sea levels.

A recent study found over 1700 cities in the US are locked in to a future below high tide levels and Boston is one of the largest at threat.

The City of Boston, Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Boston Harbor Association teamed up earlier this year, not to talk about how to avoid the problem but how to adapt to it.

They ran a competition to see how Boston can use urban design changes to address rising sea levels.

The Urban Land Institute of Boston also published a study called The Implications of Living with Water, (http://boston.uli.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2012/04/ULI_LivingWithWater-Final1.pdf) which said the time to act is now and that Greater Boston could be an example of “for swift and skilful planning and construction by which many other metropolitan regions around the world could look to.”

Image source: Bostinno and Arlen Stawasz

The innovative design ideas range from creating a synthetic reef and using porous green material to safeguard the Boston HarborWalk through to seasonal pop up retail and building Venetian-inspired canals. Take a look at some of the ideas. (http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/09/30/urban-land-institute-boston-rising-sea-level-designs-climate-action/)

Banner image source: courtesy of Sasaki Associates