Two years after Superstorm Sandy became a cautionary tale about the dangers of climate change, a team of experts will meet this week to come up with strategies to prepare Boston, Cambridge and Revere for rising sea levels.
The Urban Land Institute will host "Living with Water: The Urban Implications" on Thursday, the first in a series of meetings bringing together architects, engineers, developers and financiers to find ways to help people protect their communities.
"There's been a large body of research on sea-level rise, and we believe the time is now for members of the design and development disciplines within the real estate industry to come up with viable solutions," said Sarah Barnat, ULI's executive director.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that seas will rise between 3 and 6 feet by the end of this century. Because of how Greater Boston is situated, it will be disproportionately affected, said Dennis Carlberg, sustainability director at Boston University and co-chairman of the ULI Boston Sustainability Council.
Scientists project changing climate conditions will cause Boston Harbor to be as much as 6 feet above current levels, and more than 30 percent of the city will flood during storms at high tide.
"The real underlying question is: How do you change design now for new construction, and how do you modify existing designs?" he said. "This is a whole set of issues we've never dealt with before."
Four teams will look at one of four sites: the Back Bay; new development in Boston's Innovation District; a new, mixed-use construction project on the Revere waterfront; and a district planning initiative for Alewife.
The teams will focus on preparing for a "new normal" when today's storm surge becomes tomorrow's twice-daily high tide, Carlberg said.
Each team will work to answer four questions: how solutions affect the streetscape, what the implications are for policymakers, how property owners and tenants assess and balance their costs and risks, and what different stakeholders need to do, he said. A report on the findings is due out in September.
"The timing of the ULI project is very positive because Boston is updating its climate action plan with a focus on climate preparedness, so the results of their work will help inform our strategy update," said Brian Swett, the city's chief of environment, energy and open space.
The updated plan will be released at the end of this year, Swett said, but officials already have taken steps to mitigate flooding as a result of rising sea levels and Superstorm Sandy-like storms. The Boston Redevelopment Authority now requires all new large developments to complete a questionnaire to ensure flood-proofing and other building-preparedness practices are included in their planning, design and construction, Swett said.
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