The National Park Service (NPS) oversees about 4.5 miles of urban waterfront within the San Francisco Bay, including Crissy Field, Fort Mason, and Aquatic Park—national treasures that provide essential open space and access to nature for the dense population of the Bay Area that will be impacted by rising sea levels. Working with local partners including the Parks Conservancy and community members, NPS undertook a series of projects to understand what will be vulnerable with future sea-level rise, adaptation options, and what the community wants to see for the future waterfronts. The results illustrated how different values and priorities within the groups led to radically different outcomes.
In this peer-to-peer conversation, facilitators will discuss how community-based and interactive planning methods can be a successful model for engaging with the public on large, complicated projects, generating consensus, and informing park agency planning.
