Climate Change
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Promising to Prevent Floods at Treasure Island, Builders Downplay Risk of Sea Rise

04.03.2023
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Sea level rise is forcing cities around San Francisco Bay to weigh demand for new housing against the need to protect communities from flooding. Builders say they can solve this dilemma with cutting-edge civil engineering. But no one knows whether their ambitious efforts will be enough to keep newly built waterfront real estate safe in coming decades.

Meanwhile, developers are busy building — and telling the public that they can mitigate this one effect of climate change, despite mounting evidence that it could be a bigger problem than previously believed.

Climate Change
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Sea Level Rise in S.F. Will Affect More Than the Waterfront

09.19.2019
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Professor Kristina Hill, of the University of California, Berkeley, outlines how sea level rise is likely to affect San Francisco, the danger posed by toxic waste and how the city could adapt.
“Places that people think are not going to flood because there’ll be a levee or a wall may actually flood as that groundwater comes right up through the surface of the soil.” — Kristina Hill

This story was produced in collaboration with Covering Climate Now. Covering Climate Now is a global journalism initiative committed to bringing more and better coverage to the defining story of our time.

Climate Change
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State Looking to Require Cities to Plan for Rising Seas

03.19.2018
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California officials are taking their first, tentative steps toward requiring cities to plan for severe sea level rise that scientists now say could conceivably elevate high tides by up to 22 feet by the middle of the next century. A state-funded study recommends that local planners adopt a risk-averse approach to permitting developments such as hospitals and housing in areas that have even little chance of flooding in the coming decades.

Bay Area
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Visionary Solutions to Bayfront Inundation

04.20.2017
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Responding to sea level rise requires actions that fall into three categories: fortify infrastructure, accommodate higher water and retreat from the shoreline. Given the economic and cultural ties Bay Area residents have to the water — retreat is a hard sell.

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Arts & Culture

By Weakening Law, Developers Shift Sea Rise Burden to Cities

04.19.2017
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Two years ago, the California Supreme Court overturned decades of land-use law by upholding lower court rulings that cities could no longer require developers to take into account the effects of climate change on their projects. That decision has unsettled public officials and planners, and critics say it will allow real estate interests to saddle taxpayers with a gigantic bill to defend against rising seas.

Climate Change
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Projects Sailed Through Despite Dire Flood Study

04.19.2017
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A city-commissioned environmental study that detailed how the Mission Bay neighborhood would be inundated by rising seas in coming decades went unpublished for more than a year while two showcase waterfront developments won key approvals from city officials and voters, a Public Press review of records shows.