Coastal infrastructureBoston prepares for life with rising sea levels

A 2013 World Bank study listed only seven cities in the world as more vulnerable to flooding than Boston. The other American cities are Miami, New York, New Orleans, and Tampa.

Faced with the prospect of having a significant portion of the city underwater, city officials and private developers have launched a competition to redesign Boston for the year 2100, with the assumption that sea levels will be five feet higher than they are today. The Living With Water competition looks to prove that the future of Boston can coexist with rising sea levels.

Developing Boston itself was a story of turning water into land, according to Salon. Prior to 1900, Boston tripled its landmass through land reclamation. “Cutting down hills to fill the coves,” was how historian Walter Muir Whitehall termed it. For example, the Beacon Hill neighborhood was decapitated to fill in a pond which is now Bulfinch Triangle. The creation of the Back Bay neighborhood was a decades-long infill project that reclaimed 700 acres of stagnant marshland.

As developers and planners construct designs for a future Boston, residents and businesses are concerned that new flood maps published by the Federal Emergency Management Agencywill increase their flood insurance premiums. Under the new maps, due to be released this year, the number of residences in the floodplain will reach 18,000 from just roughly 8,000. The number of businesses which will be affected will reach 4,000 from just 250.

With an expected five feet sea level rise, at high tide, Back Bay will be underwater. Last year, the Homeland Security News Wire reported that the Urban Land Institute recommended the Back Bay neighborhood incorporate a network of canals, bridges, artificial wetlands, and flood control gates to deal with the city’s future (see “Building a network of canals to save Boston from sea level rise,” HSNW, 28 October 2014).

The Living With Water competition is asking finalists to adapt to climate change and rising sea levels three sites (Building, Neighborhood, and Infrastructure) chosen for their vulnerability and potential positively to influence future redevelopment activities. The sites are: The Prince Building, a privately owned condominium building on the North End which embodies the challenges facing multi-owner residential buildings; the 100 Acres section of Fort Point Channel District which represents the large urban mixed-use redevelopment opportunities found throughout Boston; and Morrissey Boulevard, which exemplifies the transportation infrastructure connecting Boston’s neighborhoods.

“We chose sites that are approaching a degree of vulnerability already, facing episodic flooding already, and will face inundation earlier,” said John Dalzell, a senior architect at the Boston Redevelopment Agency, which helped launch the competition.