Manifesto of San Rafael’s-Water Team

High housing cost, a high population of low-income, high-density housing, crowded streets, upcoming gentrification, wildfires and flood caused by sea level rise gradually invaded San Rafael and aggravated the vulnerability of displacement. Therefore, this project will set the vision for this city to build a healthy, safe and low-carbon city in 2050. We would like to take measures to eliminate the dangers of communities caused by the sea level rise, transform the old and vulnerable communities into microgrids, provide affordable houses and create more job opportunities for residents.

This manifesto will set three principles for San Rafael and other cities that have the similar armature.

Firstly, building the superdike to protect the city from the sea level rise. According to the forecast of sea level rise in 2050, we need to build a superdike of the height of 10 feet and the width of 30 feet as a buffer. All buildings and landscape in this area would be rebuilt. At that time, we introduced the concept of microgrid to design more green space, clean energy facilities, water recycling facilities, urban agriculture, sidewalk systems, etc. in the grids that needed to be built to form the low-carbon, environmentally-friendly and healthy grids. At the same time, these processes of building superdike, demolishing buildings, and constructing new microgrids would create thousands of jobs in this city.

Second, considering the housing shortage and unaffordable houses in this city. I suggested transforming the most vulnerable community into a tidal city. The tidal city would provide 50–75 house units per acre for this city. Meanwhile, the artificial pool of the tidal city was resilient to the sea level rise and flood. Also, we planned to design two kinds of houses, including single-family houses and apartments, to meet residents’ needs. This strategy would provide affordable houses and job opportunities for people with low income.

Third, more green space was proposed to be built in this city to improve the ecological environment. We put forward to restore the shoreline by building wetland and oyster reef along the shoreline. Also, two ecological corridors were proposed to link the hill to the ocean, create more habitats for wildlife and enhance biodiversity.

The plan of San Rafael Project (Produced by Yuetian Wang)