Climate Change

New Urban Designs Identied in Report

Help Waterfront Areas Respond to Flooding
N
ew urban designs, described in a report released
Aug. 1, can help waterfront cities respond to sea
level rise and other effects of climate change.
The report, issued by the Boston Harbor Association
and Sasaki Associates, provides 12 case studies describ-
ing how cities around the world are using a concept
known as designing with water to allow defined areas
to flood or contain water in order to avoid damage to
other areas.
This approach allows city planners and developers to
explore innovative designs that enable urban areas to
survive and thrive in the face of rising sea levels and ex-
treme coastal storms, the studys authors said.
Sea Level Could Rise 6 Feet. According to report, De-
signing with Water: Creative Examples from Around
the Globe, storms in the Northeast are getting signifi-
cantly worse.
The study says that sea level in Boston has risen by a
foot over the last century and is projected to rise an-
other 2 to 6 feet by 2100.
While extreme flooding is generally a new problem
for Boston, cities such as Amsterdam, Hamburg and
Seoul have had decades, even centuries, of learning
how to allow flooding without damage occurring, Julie
Wormser, executive director of the Boston Harbor As-
sociation said at a press conference on Aug. 1. These
cities have recognized that it is financially, culturally
and ecologically beneficial to work with water, instead
of fighting to keep every last drop out.
Floodable Spaces. Case studies in the report include
such design projects as canals, floodable first floors,
floating apartment buildings and floodable open spaces
within cities.
In tandem with release of the study, Brian Swett,
chief of Environment, Energy and Open Space for Bos-
ton, said the city will host an international competition
this fall calling for climate change-resilient design solu-
tions for three at-risk waterfront sites in Boston. He
said the design contest is part of overall expanded ef-
forts by the city to address the issues of climate adapta-
tion.
The citys climate adaptation plan contains a number
of recommendations for both the public and private sec-
tor to prepare for flooding, including one that calls for
working with stakeholders to align building codes, zon-
ing regulations, insurance premiums and other market-
based incentives to align flood preparedness activities
with profitability.
The Designing with Water study is the second volume
in a series of studies that began with the 2013 report
Preparing for the Rising Tide, which provided an ini-
tial assessment of Bostons vulnerability to coastal
flooding due to storm surges and sea level rise.
BY MARTHA KESSLER
To contact the reporter on this story: Martha Kessler
in Boston at mkessler@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry
Pearl at lpearl@bna.com
The study is available at http://tbha.org/sites/tbha.org/
les/documents/prt2_designing_with_water_full.pdf
NUMBER 149 AUGUST 4, 2014
COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. ISSN 1060-2976
Daily Environment
Report

2
To request permission to reuse or share this document, please contact permissions@bna.com. In your request, be sure to include the following in-
formation: (1) your name, company, mailing address, email and telephone number; (2) name of the document and/or a link to the document PDF; (3)
reason for request (what you want to do with the document); and (4) the approximate number of copies to be made or URL address (if posting to a
website).
8-4-14 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. DEN ISSN 1060-2976