Resilient Roads and Reserves (R3): Opportunities for Improving Access in California

Project overview

In California, an increasingly critical planning challenge is addressing how coastal flooding driven by high tides, storm events, and sea-level rise threatens low-lying roads and natural areas. Flooding affects multiple regional ecological, economical, and community dynamics, and can have particularly adverse impacts on frontline communities. Effects range from increased erosion and pollutant runoff into adjacent habitats, to limiting access to reserves and their programs, broader risks to local emergency services, disruption of nearby community travel to schools and workplaces, and slowdowns of commercial activities.

The Elkhorn Slough, San Francisco Bay, and Tijuana River Reserves worked together and leveraged their experiences to inform how they, their state partner agencies, other California coastal managers, and the whole NERRS can better engage in planning processes involving dual management concerns for flood-vulnerable roads and adjacent coastal habitats.

Research conducted

The project team collaboratively developed case studies for each California Reserve. Each case study helped to develop an internal a state-of-the-issue report. The case studies informed materials developed to engage local and state decision-makers. You can read more about the project here

Findings

This project found that while road flooding often creates a series of difficult concurring challenges — impeding normal travel to jobs, schools, etc.; creating public safety risks from delayed emergency responses, adding further pollution and erosional impacts into adjacent natural habitats — addressing these joint flooding threats in a coordinated fashion may present joint opportunities for win-wins for better transportation corridors and enhanced protection and restoration of natural habitats.

Outcomes & impact

This project contributed to several successful outcomes including:

Conversations with state agency and legislative staff in the state capitol have increased awareness of the three California NERRs and their ongoing efforts to work toward natural and nature-based adaptive solutions to flooding, and positioned the reserves to more regularly engage with such groups to highlight how the NERRs can serve as models for coastal management across the California coast.
Deepened relationships and understanding of unique contexts, challenges, and opportunities across the three Reserves.
Engagement with frontline communities strengthened relationships with Elkhorn Slough NERR, and helped prepare student leaders and their communities for greater involvement in ongoing and emerging adaptation planning processes.
The collaborations that occurred during the project contributed to strengthening networks of coastal managers, state partners, regulatory agencies, and transportation agencies involved in road planning in the site areas.