Building off the steps to strengthen regional resilience outlined in the Action Plan of Plan Bay Area 2040, Raising the Bar details six steps that BARC, its member agencies and regional partners must take in order to develop an integrated Regional Resilience Plan:
- Develop a regional governance strategy for climate adaptation projects.
- Provide stronger policy leadership on resilient housing and infrastructure, focusing on communities with high social vulnerability and exposure to natural hazards.
- Create new funding sources for adaptation and resilience projects that will protect against flooding, earthquakes and exposure to environmental health risks.
- Establish and provide a resilience technical services team that can share best practices, data, mapping, staff, financial resources, public participation processes and policy actions across jurisdictions, non-profit organizations, academic institutions and the regional agencies.
- Expand the region’s network of natural infrastructure such as marshlands to reduce flood risk, strengthen biodiversity, enhance air quality, and improve access to urban and rural public spaces.
- Establish a Bay Area Regional Advance Mitigation Program (RAMP) to identify environmental mitigation opportunities for transportation infrastructure projects at a regional scale early in the planning process, thereby improving project delivery and conservation outcomes.
Multi-Benefit Horizontal Levee
For each of the above actions, the report provides further information on partners, timelines, relevant ongoing projects and specific desired outcomes.