Vancouver Sea2City Design Challenge
The Sea2City Design Challenge (Sea2City) will help inform a framework and vision to guide urban development and ecological revitalization in the False Creek floodplain, a highly valued and constrained urban floodplain in the heart of the City of Vancouver. The design challenge engages two multidisciplinary teams to work cooperatively to:
Explore coastal adaptation approaches that respond to the social equity, economic, and ecological challenges posed by sea level rise and coastal flooding.
Investigate coastal adaptation approaches for sea level rise beyond 1 meter.
Expand the City’s toolbox of coastal flood management approaches.
Increase public awareness of climate change and sea level rise.
Given the importance of False Creek to Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh, Sea2City is encouraging teams to develop approaches where adaptation and decolonization are operating in tandem and mutually beneficial.
Implementation will begin after the completion of Sea2City and will likely continue for several years recognizing the additional research, planning, technical design, and engagement that will be required to move coastal adaptation forward in such a complex urban floodplain as False Creek.
Project Website: Sea2City Design Challenge
Questions addressed by Living with Water:
How is equitable adaptation planning being actioned and measured in urban coastal cities?
How is trust-building evaluated in interdisciplinary climate adaptation projects? And, how can evaluating relationships help to ensure as equitable outcomes as possible for Indigenous partners?
How can municipalities sustain cycles of community engagement, education, and knowledge creation over extended time periods in order to create shared visions of the future, enhance the complexity of citizen understanding, and foster support for innovative adaptive management strategies?
How can we develop inclusive language and frameworks to promote just community relocations and coastal adaptation solutions?
How can Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) be expanded and rethought to improve decision-making around community relocation as an adaptation to sea level rise?