Phase I: Shoreline Inventory, Mapping, and Vulnerability Assessment
A report to the State Coastal Conservancy by Aldaron Laird, Brian Powell, and Jeff Anderson.
Click below to download the report:
Humboldt Bay Shoreline Inventory, Mapping and SLR Vulnerability Assessment (PDF, 45 MB)
Addendum: Dike and Railroad Shoreline Vulnerability Rating
2/1/13
Parts of New York and New Jersey are still reeling from Superstorm Sandy, an event that brought climate change and the threat of sea-level rise front-and-center. It's a looming problem for all coastal cities, and one that San Francisco has been pondering since long before Sandy struck. Along San Francisco’s western shore, the Ocean Beach Master Plan is a kind of test case for sea-rise planning. It calls for big changes, including a strategy known as managed retreat.
12/12/12
If you head down the beach this week, or wander along the edges of San Francisco Bay, you may just be witnessing California's future.
The ocean is getting closer.
11/28/12
This year America watched sea levels rise and the ocean flood cities across the east coast in late October. Humboldt County faces a similar threat.
Mid-November to early December is when flood risk is the highest. A storm during the high tides of that time can overtake the dikes around Humboldt Bay, flood the area and cost the county millions of dollars to recover.
10/10/12
The county is looking at ways to protect coastal communities on Humboldt Bay threatened by rising sea levels and aging dikes. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to support a recent application for a $250,000 Coastal Conservancy grant that would allow nonprofit Coastal Ecosystems Institute of Northern California to adapt planning and technical studies associated with sea level rise in Humboldt Bay.
Aldaron Laird of Trinity Associates said at Tuesday’s meeting that the first phase of the project — the first comprehensive mapping of Humboldt Bay, funded by the Coastal Conservancy — was complete. Seventy-five percent of Humboldt Bay’s 102 mile shoreline is artificial, Laird said, meaning it needs maintenance.
Laird said Humboldt Bay has the highest rate of sea level rise on the West Coast and showed examples of crumbling dikes and shoreline areas that already flood yearly.
Harbor district Director of Conservation Division Dan Berman said it was an important issue for the district, adding that even if sea level rise goes more slowly than expected, it’s already a problem on the bay.
