From Vulnerability to Equity: Rethinking Adaptation to Sea Level Rise in California & Humboldt Bay

(1) developing a framework for considering equity in sea level rise planning that can guide work in the Wigi region and possibly beyond.

(2) starting a dialogue around how the Wigi community envisions living with sea level rise in ways that are equitable and just. Collectively this work will be used to develop an understanding of opportunities for better incorporating equity considerations into local and regional SLR planning across Wigi.

Anthropogenic driven climate change is contributing to an increase in more frequent extreme weather events including more intense storm surge events that elevate the risks associated with coastal flooding. Coastal flooding during storm surge events will be exacerbated as sea levels continue to rise. While the impacts of climate change are unraveling across the globe, certain segments of the population have experienced, and will continue to experience, an unequal distribution of the associated environmental burdens. The impacts of climate change, particularly sea level rise, are not being experienced by all equally. Frontline communities— predominately communities of color and lower socioeconomic status—experience the “first and worst” impacts of climate change.

Social science research suggests that unless equity considerations are adequately included within climate adaptation processes, climate adaptation processes will exacerbate unequal climate impacts to frontline coastal communities. While the importance of advancing equity is broadly touted and understood, there has yet to be a placed-based effort to assess what it would mean to build in equity within sea level rise (SLR) planning processes across Wigi (Humboldt Bay, CA) — a place experiencing one of the fastest rates of relative SLR on the entire West Coast. This research will identify principles of equity that can be applied within SLR adaptation and planning across Wigi. This work will inform the development of a set of recommendations that Wigi-area planners and practitioners can adopt to further equity within SLR adaptation planning across the region.

The project is organized into two phases. 

Phase 1: The goal is to develop an understanding of equity principles that can be centered within SLR adaptation processes across California. We will review SLR policy guidance, equity and environmental justice documents authored by different state agencies and organizations, and interview key environmental justice and equity professionals working on ocean and coastal policy and management in California. 

Phase 2: We shift to a local context, and focus on developing a clear understanding of equity efforts in SLR adaptation planning across Wigi to date. We will review public planning documents for equity elements and share findings through a community presentation and/or roundtable discussion. 

Former graduate student Kristina Kunkel measuring flood waters during King Tide event in King Salmon, CA.

https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/hjsr/vol1/iss45/7/ 

Richmond, Laurie, Jeff Anderson, Josephine Archibald, Alec Brown, Eileen Cashman, Joice Chang, Clancy De Smet, Yvonne Everett, James Graham, Nayre Herrera, Bente Jansen, Jennifer Kalt, Aldaron Laird, Lonyx Landry, Daniel Lipe, Bonnie Ludka, José Marín Jarrín, Jennifer Marlow, Kristen Orth-Gordinier, Jason Patton, Frank Shaughnessy, Alyssa Suarez, Alexandra Toyofuku, Amelia Vergel de Dios, and Hilanea Wilkinson. 2023. “Transformative Sea-level Rise Research and Planning: Establishing a University, Tribal, and Community Partnership for a Resilient California North Coast.” Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 1 (45): 67-93. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55671/0160-4341.1167