Background

In 2010, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) and NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management (NOAA OCM) brought together local, regional, state and federal agencies and organizations, as well as non-profit and private associations for a collaborative planning project along the Alameda County shoreline – the ART Subregional Project – to identify how current and future flooding will affect communities, infrastructure, ecosystems and economy.

Since then, the ART Program has continued to both lead and support multi-sector, cross-jurisdictional projects that build local and regional capacity in the San Francisco Bay Area to plan for and implement adaptation responses. These efforts have enabled the ART Program to test and refine adaptation planning methods (ART Approach) to integrate sustainability and transparent decision-making from start to finish, and foster robust collaborations that lead to action on adaptation.

ART Program Elements

Throughout the region, the ART Program is integrating adaptation into local and regional planning and decision-making in multiple ways:

1. Leading collaborative adaptation planning projects that build a comprehensive understanding of climate vulnerability and risk, develop effective and equitable adaptation responses, and find paths forward for implementing these responses.
   

   This is an example of a graphic used by ART Program staff in an engagement exercise with a project stakeholder working group to explore functional and physical linkages among community assets and services, built infrastructure and natural shorelines that contribute to their climate vulnerability.

2. Assisting adaptation planning efforts with consistent staff support that includes help with process and meeting design, review of work products and more.
3. Providing the ART Portfolio which combines a comprehensive set of online resources, including how-to guides, tools and findings, with Help Desk support from experienced ART Program staff to enable planners to make use of Portfolio resources to efficiently and effectively assess and plan for climate impacts.
4. Building regional capacity for adaptation by working with local, regional, state and federal agencies to find funding, and develop capacity and support at all scales for this work.
5. Advocating for adaptation through communicating findings, issues, processes and needs to state and federal agencies to ensure that grant and other assistance programs are informed by and responsive to conditions in the Bay Area.

The ART Portfolio

This ART Portfolio website provides access to the planning guidance, tools, data and information developed and refined by ART Program staff based on their extensive experience and lessons learned in adaptation planning through leading and supporting numerous projects. The ART Portfolio consists of:

Findings

Summarized outcomes and information from the ART project in Alameda County. These findings represent the ART Program’s current understanding for different sectors and issues related to adaptation planning. Examples of sectors included are transportation, community land use and services, wastewater and storm water.

Projects

Synopses and the latest information and links to completed material for current and past regional, local, and sector-specific projects led or supported by the ART Program.

Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
Richard C. Cushing

How-To

Detailed, step-by-step guidance and supporting materials for using the ART Approach to adaptation planning.

Help Desk

Support that connects users to knowledgeable ART Program staff who can assist them with understanding and using Portfolio content, and connect them with other relevant expertise and information.