Climate Resilience

Peter Gleick, hydroclimatologist, author, and senior fellow at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, opines that recent mega-storms show the immediate need to dramatically scale-up efforts to prepare California for both flooding and drought. We must adapt California’s water infrastructure to a current and projected climate regime rather than the hydrology of its past.

BARC is proud to release our Regional System Assessment for Adapting to Climate Change report. This work captures how our regional agencies are responding to a wide array of climate hazards including sea level rise, inland flooding, water quality, drought, extreme heat, and wildfire and air quality.

India Basin Waterfront Park, planned to open in 2026, will open 1.7 miles of contiguous open space along the waterfront to the public. Located at 900 Innes Avenue in India Basin, this park will include a new boathouse, recreational dock for fishing and kayaking, a bikeway and two public piers. The planning approach recognizes the legacy of environmental injustice in this part of San Francisco by actively engaging the community in the design process.

Join Caltrans and community members for a public meeting to learn about a study being conducted to improve State Route 37. This meeting will provide an update on the development of the PEL (Planning and Environmental Linkages) Study, answer questions, and allow for public input on alignments to be evaluated in the study.

The meeting will be taking place on Zoom on: 

Tuesday, Jan. 25^th from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm (PST).

On September 17th, 2021, the BARC Governing Board unanimously approved a Joint Resolution to Address Climate Change, through which its member agencies committed to working with BARC staff to develop a Shared Work Plan that will advance coordinated implementation of some of the highest-priority actions identified in the key regional agency plans and platforms over the next one to five years.

KneeDeep Times, a new digital magazine exploring climate resilience in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, announced its launch today.

An article in SFGate highlights the risks that climate change-induced hazards pose to the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system. In 2019, BART experienced massive systemwide delays due to mechanical problems on a very hot summer day.

A recent New York Times article highlights the massive storms that have converged over Australia in recent days, dumping three feet of rain in five days and forcing nearly 20,000 people to evacuate-- only a year after the country experienced its largest wildfires in recorded history. 

An article in the New York Times today highlights the building industry's efforts to influence building codes, which are typically adopted by states and local governments every three years, often relying on influential models set by the International Code Council. These building codes protect homeowners from sustaining damage in extreme weather events, and reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions from buildings.

A new article in the Los Angeles Times describes the effects that sea level rise is having on California coastal communities. Sea level rise of greater than 9 feet could occur by the end of this century, in comparison with less than 9 inches in the last 100 years.