Rising Waters, Floating Hot Dog Stands: How Urban Climate-Adaptation May Unfold
September 2nd, 2024

Courtesy of The Washington Post, a graphical look at how cities of the future can withstand a warming planet:

How can cities of the future withstand a warming planet? Kristina Hill, an associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley and the head of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development, works with California officials to imagine more resilient communities. Her work addresses questions about what we should preserve, what we should replace and what we can introduce to make our environment safer — and more beautiful.

Illustration of climate adaptation designer Kristina Hill. Text reads: “Kristina Hill, Urban climate-adaptation designer.” Kristina: “Climate scientists often have to focus on the negative. But my work — in design and landscape architecture — is also about beauty, and hope.”
Illustration of houses with water rising over them. Text reads: “Rising water.” Illustration of a polluted body of water. Text reads: “Contamination.” Illustration of flames over a cityscape. Text reads: “And fire.” Kristina: “My focus is coastal design. People like me are proposing ways to retrofit towns to deal with climate-related risks like rising water, contamination and fire.”
Illustration of a broken sewer with dirty water spilling out, a building with a foundation that is cracked in two, a parent and child walking through a city wearing masks with toxic chemicals coming from the ground beneath them. Kristina: “Groundwater that rises and falls with tides can break pipes and flood sanitary sewers. The foundations of buildings are at risk. And in places with contaminated soil, people can be exposed to dangerously high levels of pollutants — which can make them sick or even kill them."
Kristina walks down a street in a neighborhood where flowers grow and neighbors greet each other. There are people walking their dog, riding a bike or children playing. Kristina: “There are more contaminated sites in areas that are low income and communities of color. I try to put social justice issues like this at the front of my work. It’s not really a solution if it doesn’t protect everyone and keep people in the community who have lived there for generations.”
Kristina standing on a beach with houses in the distance. Kristina: “Then there are wealthy communities, like Stinson Beach here in the Bay area, where wealthy people own many of the homes to rent out on Airbnb, and only use them for themselves a few weeks out of the year. Should the public pay to protect those properties from rising water? I don’t think so.”
Kristina and two of her students looking at a model of a future city on a table. Kristina: “In San Rafael, on the other hand, the city is trying to make sure that people in a low-income, mostly Latino part of the city can give input before they take their plans to landowners in wealthier areas. My students and I are observing that process. The class looks at climate adaptation strategies that are aesthetically pleasing and, crucially, safe for everyone. To me, it can be hopeful — and fun — to design for a changing world.”
Kristina standing on a floating ice cream stand with a hot dog in her hand. Kristina Hill: “We can learn to live with water by building floating hot dog stands ..."
An illustration of a floating barge swimming pool. Then an illustration of luxury houses floating on a body of water. Kristina: “We can learn to live with water by building floating hot dog stands or heated barge swimming pools or luxury housing on top of artificial ponds.”
Kristina standing at a podium in front of an audience pointing at a presentation of a climate adaptation plan. Kristina: “I’m working with California cities to incorporate some of these ideas into their climate adaptation plans. I know that I can't solve all the problems. We don’t even know what the future challenges there will be. But these are time-tested strategies for living with water.”
Kristina paddling past a beautiful environment with animals and plants. Kristina: “It sounds like science fiction to some people. But I want to show that we can fix mistakes we made in the past. And we can live in a beautiful coastal environment with water quality and biodiversity.”
(Maya Scarpa/For The Washington Post)

This entry was posted on Monday, September 2nd, 2024 at 5:35 am and is filed under Green Design.  You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.  Both comments and pings are currently closed. 

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BLACK SWANS GREEN SHOOTS
Black Swans / Green Shoots examines the collision between urbanization and resource scarcity in a world affected by climate change, identifying opportunities to build sustainable cities and resilient infrastructure through the use of revolutionary capital, increased awareness, innovative technologies, and smart design to make a difference in the face of global and local climate perils.

'Black Swans' are highly improbable events that come as a surprise, have major disruptive effects, and that are often rationalized after the fact as if they had been predictable to begin with. In our rapidly warming world, such events are occurring ever more frequently and include wildfires, floods, extreme heat, and drought.

'Green Shoots' is a term used to describe signs of economic recovery or positive data during a downturn. It references a period of growth and recovery, when plants start to show signs of health and life, and, therefore, has been employed as a metaphor for a recovering economy.

It is my hope that Black Swans / Green Shoots will help readers understand both climate-activated risk and opportunity so that you may invest in, advise, or lead organizations in the context of increasing pressures of global urbanization, resource scarcity, and perils relating to climate change. I believe that the tools of business and finance can help individuals, businesses, and global society make informed choices about who and what to protect, and I hope that this blog provides some insight into the policy and private sector tools used to assess investments in resilient reinforcement, response, or recovery.