Category: Fight or Flight
Shores that Can Shapeshift AND Stay Put?
The region is obsessing over beach-building. Whether it’s a degraded salt marsh in downtown San Rafael or a sliver of wetlands near the old San Francisco shipyards, local practitioners are adding beaches as nature-based buffers against waves and rising seas to adaptation projects around the Bay.
Why California’s Water Extremes Are Wilder than Ever — And What We Can Do About It
While alternating between drought and deluge is nothing new for California, climate change is making these swings even more dramatic. New research and new policies will help the state prepare as the boom and bust cycle grows ever wilder.
Region Reconnoiters on 30×30 Aspirations
Keeping a third of California unpaved may be ambitious in a state where the car remains king, but politicians are coming around. The Bay Area has 117 projects lined up to be counted.

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New Flood Protection Standard for the Peninsula
In San Mateo County, new planning guidance may help cities account for rising seas when approving new developments. OneShoreline’s proposals are stricter than current requirements from federal, state, and local agencies, but those are also evolving. “The intent is to go where we already see regulators are going,” says Makena Wong, a project manager.
Shores that Can Shapeshift AND Stay Put?
The region is obsessing over beach-building. Whether it’s a degraded salt marsh in downtown San Rafael or a sliver of wetlands near the old San Francisco shipyards, local practitioners are adding beaches as nature-based buffers against waves and rising seas to adaptation projects around the Bay.
Why California’s Water Extremes Are Wilder than Ever — And What We Can Do About It
While alternating between drought and deluge is nothing new for California, climate change is making these swings even more dramatic. New research and new policies will help the state prepare as the boom and bust cycle grows ever wilder.
Region Reconnoiters on 30×30 Aspirations
Keeping a third of California unpaved may be ambitious in a state where the car remains king, but politicians are coming around. The Bay Area has 117 projects lined up to be counted.
Future-Proof Homes?
Oona Khan dreams about her home of the future, after losing her Malibu retreat to fire. Caught in a quagmire of legal battles with Southern California Edison, and surging construction costs, Khan is still waiting to start construction.
The Case for Climate Castles
As climate change throws more extreme events at us, isn’t it time to think bigger, bolder, further ahead? Six young architects draw climate-resilient castles.
Looking for Justice at the Nexus of Housing and Climate Policy
How housing is built and who it is built for are not only equity questions, but also climate mitigation questions. When people can afford to live near their jobs, their emissions from commuting go down.
Safer at School from Wildfire Smoke?
Research confirms the drastic impacts wildfire smoke has had on school learning. But 16 East Bay schools now have updated air filters and more actions are in the pipeline statewide.
My Neighborhood Wised Up to Fire
When we fled the house in the Santa Cruz mountains that we had been living in for just nine months, we knew exactly two of our neighbors.
Extremes-in-3D
In Part 1 FIRE, KneeDeep explores where to expect debris flows from burn scars, how one neighborhood became fire wise, and what schools are doing to become safe havens.
East Coast: Three Tales of Trouble and Triumph in the Fight Against Storm Surge
In this January mini-series, KneeDeep reaches across the continent to the East Coast to see how New York, New Jersey and Miami are wrestling with rising seas, whether they are succeeding in getting the local populace on-board, how the Army Corps’ is faring in its slow embrace of more nature-based flood-protection, and what parallels can be found here in San Francisco Bay. Three different angles on the same story, including one presented for your listening pleasure, by reporters Lilah Burke, Robin Meadows, and Ashleigh Papp.
Rising Seas Bring the Cryosphere to NYC’s Battery Park City
From New York’s Battery Park City and Staten Island to the Cryosphere, follow sea level rise resilience work in this 13 minute audio story.
