Regional Resilience Partnerships

Increasing regional resilience is needed to maintain and improve the Bay Area’s quality of life. Bay Area agencies and stakeholders have been and will continue to work together on regional issues such as climate change, natural hazards, housing, transportation, environmental preservation and restoration. The ART Program plays a key role working with regional partners to advance planning and action to improve the climate and hazard resilience of existing and planned shoreline development, infrastructure, and natural resources.

Core partnerships include:

The Bay Area Regional Collaborative

BCDC is a member of the Bay Area Regional Collaborative (BARC), and ART Program staff are working closely with BARC and staff from its member agencies (Association of Bay Area Governments, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District) as well as the California Coastal Conservancy to coordinated resilience-building efforts. This includes coordinating between projects and programs to better address regional adaptation and mitigation issues, and working together to include resilience in regional efforts, such as the 2017 Sustainable Communities Strategy Update, also known as Plan Bay Area.

Bay Area Resilient by Design Challenge

BDCD is a Resilient by Design (RBD) Managing Partner, and the ART Program is helping RBD bring together government, community leaders and stakeholders from around the region to address challenges affecting the resiliency of our neighborhoods, environment, and infrastructure in this era of climate and seismic uncertainty.

CHARG

ART Program staff serves on the steering committee and technical subcommittee of the San Francisco Bay Region Coastal Hazards Adaptation Resiliency Group (CHARG). The ART Program is assisting CHARG with improving the regional coordination among federal, state, local, private and nongovernmental agencies and organizations in order to help solve regional flood management issues, exchange ideas, transfer technical knowledge and expertise, and develop local, state and federal financing and funding strategies.

Association of Bay Area Governments Resilience Program

The ART Program is partnering with ABAG’s Resilience Program on hazard mitigation and climate adaptation in order to leverage the strengths and expertise of both programs. Stronger Housing, Safer Communities was one of the first projects the two programs completed together, followed by working together to support local jurisdictions as they update or develop local hazard mitigation and climate adaptation plans.

Bay Area Transportation Climate Resilience

MTC, Caltrans, BART and the ART Program are working together to build a regional understand of sea level rise and storm event flooding on critical transportation infrastructure. Together, the agencies have assessed transportation infrastructure in Alameda County and three focus areas, and have developed adaptation actions and implementation options. Findings from these efforts are helping resolve both the specific vulnerabilities identified and are being applied broadly throughout the region by Caltrans, BART, CCJPA and others. For more information, please contact Todd Hallenbeck at BCDC.

Dumbarton Bridge West Approach + Adjacent Communities Resilience Study

BCDC is supporting the East Palo Alto Dumbarton Bridge Resiliency Study by serving on the project management team. This project is being led by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority (SFCJPA), with support from consultants at AECOM, and is funded by a Caltrans SB1 Adaptation Planning grant. The project seeks to improve understanding of flooding impacts and hydrological modeling at the Dumbarton Bridge touchdown and identify adaptation strategies, while also supporting the nearby vulnerable community of East Palo Alto, globally important job centers, critical ecosystems and essential infrastructure. The final report was completed in June 2020, and you can access the report here. For more information, please contact Stefanie Hom at MTC.

Related Projects and Programs

Projects:
2017 Update to Plan Bay Area
2016 Local Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plans
Stronger Housing, Safer Communities
2020 Dumbarton Bridge West Approach + Adjacent Communities Resilience Study

Programs:
ABAG Resilience Program
MTC Climate Change Program
California Coastal Conservancy Climate Program
Bay Area Regional Collaborative