'Plan B' - California Preparing to Adapt?

In early December, pre-Copenhagen, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a lead story about California's efforts to plan for - not mitigate - the results of climate change.

Following a recommendation of the new report "California Climate Change Adaption Strategy - 2009" , the Governor in December created a new 23-person State's Climate Change Advisory Panel (CCAP) to make specific suggestions and recommendations in 6 months, by July 2010, especially to prepare for:

1. Increased wildfires and extended fire seasons.
2. Rising sea levels along 1,100 miles of coastline.
3. Reduced availability of water with reduced snow pack in the Sierras and extended periods of drought.

To visualize climate risks in the State, Google is preparing "Cal-Adapt" (prototype for Windows or Mac only)

Downtown Santa Cruz, built on a flood plain, was singled out as an area of risk in the released report (page 68)

"For example, the City of Santa Cruz has a levee system that protects some low-lying parts of the city against a 100-year flood. With a sea-level rise of approximately one foot, the anticipated 100-year flood event in Santa Cruz is expected to occur every 10 years, increasing the likelihood of storm-related inundation."

[Source: PIER Research Report, CEC-500-2009-014-F - Page 30:

"... By 2050, sea level rise, relative to the 2000 level, ranges from 30 cm to 45 cm. As sea level rises, there will be an increased rate of extreme high sea level events (Figure 19 and Table 7), which occur during high tides, often when accompanied by winter storms and sometimes exacerbated by El Niño occurrences (Cayan et al. 2008c). Importantly, as decades proceed, these simulations also contain an increasing tendency for heightened sea level events to persist for more hours, which would seem to imply a greater threat of coastal erosion and other damage. Virtually all of the increase in frequency and magnitude of sea level exceedances can be ascribed to the underlying secular increase in mean sea level.... "]

Here is the article SF Chronicle (12/3/09)

Also a blog report here from Legal Planet (UC Berkeley and UCLA - Law Schools)

Useful Reading:

FAQ (from past summer) - best thing to read - note: SFO underwater

A number of very useful, interactive maps (Pacific Institute)

And a Pacific Institute Report on Sea level rise. Full Report

SC 100 year flood: (Pacific Institute)