Sea Level Rise Explorer

The goal of this project was to shape a community dialogue around sea level rise adaptation and the role of managed retreat in one of California’s largest coastal cities, Long Beach. The goal of these dialogues is to find ways of engaging residents that empower them to participate in the design of future communities. With the help of Virtual Planet Technologies, TNC California developed a virtual reality (VR) experience with the community to visualize sea level rise impacts and potential solutions for Long Beach. The VR serves as a tool to catalyze community discussions about current and future risk and options for long-term resilience, including controversial topics like managed retreat.

Long Beach is coastal community located just south of the City of Los Angeles is a coastal city, home to nearly 500,000 residents. Long Beach is already experiencing coastal flooding during King Tides (the highest tides of the year and coastal storms. According to a recent study, approximately 1.3 million square feet of buildings could be exposed to annual king tides by 2030. In the long-term, with sea level rise, some parts of the City are projected to be permanently inundated, especially the coastal communities of Alamitos Bay the focus of this experience. Once a large system of wetlands, the bay is now home to about 40,000 people.