California's iconic Highway 1 runs over 649 miles along the Pacific coastline, connecting coastal communities and passing through amazing coastal habitats - cliffs, dunes, wetlands, estuaries, and beaches. This important transportation asset is vulnerable to impacts from climate change, with roughly 90 miles at risk to flooding due to sea level rise and storms. California must look for solutions to ensure the safety and efficiency of this critical road and other transportation infrastructure. A powerful collaboration of partners has come together in an innovative project to develop adaptive design solutions and pathways for implementation that meets the needs of human and wildlife communities, both now and into the future. These partners, including the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Middlebury Institute's Center for the Blue Economy (CBE) and Environmental Science Associates (ESA), are working to identify sea level rise adaptation approaches for the vulnerable eight-mile stretch of Highway 1, as well as the miles of railway infrastructure, which run through the Elkhorn Slough Reserve in Monterey County, California's third largest tract of tidal wetlands. This multi-benefit project seeks to improve transportation mobility, safety and efficiency, promote healthy coastal habitats, and provide economic security and benefits to the local community. The speakers will discuss the adaptation design approaches and pathways for implementation and the use of natural infrastructure approaches to promote whole system resilience- transportation planning, coastal resource protection, economics, and engineering.
Climate Change, Sea Level Rise, and Storm-Related Adaptation
Coastal Resilience
adaptation
climate change
sea level rise
Transportation Resilience
Coastal Ecosystems