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Sea Level Rise Guidance updates

The Council heard about updates made to the Sea Level Rise Guidance document. In 2010, the Coast and Ocean Climate Action Team (CO-CAT) developed Interim Sea Level Rise Guidance to serve state agencies while a robust report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was generated. The NAS report was released in 2012 and the Sea Level Rise Guidance Document was updated by incorporating the new science from that report.  The changes in the document were summarized, including slightly different Sea Level Rise projections and discussion of the hazards related with coastal storm impacts, particularly in the next thirty to forty years. The Coastal and Ocean Climate Action Team will continue to conduct outreach and ensure that the Guidance is useful to state agencies.

Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia

The Council received a brief update of the state of the science in California along with an update on the California Ocean Acidification Panel. The Ocean Science Trust assembled an Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Science Panel comprised of subject matter experts to address the informational needs on both topics. The panel includes experts from Oregon, Washington and federal level agencies and managers. Dr. Steve Weisberg, an OST SAT member, stated that public interest in ocean acidification and hypoxia is increasing and that that OPC prioritization of this issue has helped increase focus on the issue statewide, linking the science to management needs. Dr. Weisberg described fundamental science related to ocean acidification and hypoxia that is presently under examination.

Local Coastal Program Sea Level Rise Grant Program

Mary Small, Deputy Secretary of the State Coastal Conservancy updated the council on the status of the Grants Program and described the draft grant criteria. The purpose of grant program is to help local governments to update their LCPs to protect important coastal resources. Susan Hansch expressed the California Coastal Commission’s support for this item.

Central Coast Symposium

The results of the most widespread effort to assess the state of the central coast ocean ecosystem were reported in the Symposium. Together, the Ocean Protection Council, the Ocean Science Trust, the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Fish and Game Commission has developed an internal work plan for marine protected areas in order to divide up the work in meaningful ways to create an understanding of shared goals and shared core values. They committed to a strong partnership for ocean management and particularly for marine protected area management.

Election of Council Chair

Secretary Laird was re-elected Council Chairperson unanimously.

For more meeting details, please visit our website: http://www.opc.ca.gov/category/meetings/

To request a hard copy please contact Emily Knight of the OST.

To learn more about the partnership between the Ocean Protection Council and the Ocean Science Trust, please click on the “‘more” tab:

The Partnership between the OPC and the OST:
The Ocean Science Trust (OST) provides science-support for the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC). As part of the OPC’s core mission, the Council solicits the best available science to support policy decisions and recommendations, making the Council a uniquely objective, nonpartisan body. The OPC has demonstrated its commitment to this mandate by, among other things:

• Designating the executive director of OST as its science advisor
• Relying on OST to coordinate the OPC Science Advisory Team (OPC-SAT), a multi-disciplinary advisory body of 24 scientists from a variety of research institutions in California and beyond
• Requesting OST to coordinate independent peer review of all the OPC’s scientific proposals and reports

The OST was formally established pursuant to the California Ocean Resources Stewardship Act (CORSA) of 2000. CORSA charged OST to act as a boundary organization by seeking and providing funds for ocean resource science projects, and facilitating coordinated, multi-agency and multi-institution approaches to applying ocean science to management and policy. OST maintains its nonprofit 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation status by upholding a comprehensive set of governing principles, policies, and procedures that guard the organization against influence, layered with oversight by a board of trustees composed of an array of state representatives, scientists, and interest groups.

The OST’s status as an independent non-profit organization is one of our key strengths in achieving their mission. Because the OST is not a government entity, it can act as an independent and unbiased broker between policy-makers, managers, and the scientific community.

Click for SLR Guidance Document

On Wednesday March 15, 2013 OPC staff presented an update to the State of California Sea-Level Rise Guidance Document. The purpose of the SLR Guidance remains the same, to help state agencies incorporate future sea-level rise impacts into planning decisions, but has now been updated to include the best current science, as summarized in the final report from the National Academy of Sciences, Sea-Level Rise for the Coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.

Specifically, this SLR Guidance provides information and recommendations to enhance consistency across agencies in their development of approaches to sea-level rise. Because of their differing mandates and decision-making processes, state agencies will interpret and use this document in a flexible manner, taking into consideration risk tolerances, timeframes, economic considerations, adaptive capacities, legal requirements and other relevant factors.  Although the estimates of future sea-level rise provided in this document are intended to enhance consistency across California state agencies, the document is not intended to prescribe that all state agencies use specific or identical estimates of sea-level rise as part of their assessments or decisions.

The underlying premise of the SLR Guidance is that sea-level rise potentially will cause many harmful economic, ecological, physical and social impacts and that incorporating sea-level rise into agency decisions can help mitigate some of these potential impacts.  For example, sea-level rise will threaten water supplies, coastal development, and infrastructure, but early integration of projected sea-level rise into project designs will lessen these potential impacts.

BACKGROUND

In October 2010, the Coastal and Ocean Working Group of the California Climate Action Team (CO-CAT) finalized the State of California Sea-Level Rise Interim Guidance Document  (Interim Guidance Document), which provided guidance for incorporating sea-level rise (SLR) projections into planning and decision making for projects in California. On March 11, 2011, the Ocean Protection Council adopted a Resolution stating that state agencies should follow the Interim Guidance Document as well as future guidance documents developed by the CO‐CAT. The Interim Guidance Document has now been updated: please see the attached State of California Sea-Level Rise Guidance Document.

The Interim Guidance Document was developed in response to Governor Schwarzenegger’s Executive Order S-13-08, issued on November 14, 2008, which directed state agencies to plan for sea-level rise and other climate change impacts. That executive order also requested the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to issue a report on sea-level rise to advise California on planning efforts. The Interim Guidance Document was considered interim because it was expected that the document would be updated when the NAS report was completed.

The final report from the National Academy of Sciences, Sea-Level Rise for the Coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington, was released in June 2012. The updated SLR Guidance incorporates new information presented in the NAS Report. The major additions to the document are summarized below.

• Updates the ranges of sea-level rise predicted for the years 2030, 2050 and 2100. The NAS Report sea-level rise projections are similar to the projections for 2030 and 2050 presented in the Interim Guidance Document (2010), but have a wider range. For 2100, the NAS projections are lower than those in the Interim Guidance Document (2010), due to differences in modeling approaches and consideration of regional impacts.

• Acknowledges different rates of sea-level rise for regions north and south of Cape Mendocino. The NAS Report highlights that tectonic activity north of Cape Mendocino occurs by the collision of tectonic plates in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, causing vertical land motion and lower rates of sea-level rise. South of Cape Mendocino, tectonic activity occurs along the San Andreas Fault Zone, where the plates are sliding past one another. Because of the different tectonic contexts of the two regions, separate sea-level rise ranges are presented for north and south of Cape Mendocino.

• Considers predicted tectonic activity and the significant risk posed to the region north of Cape Mendocino from a large earthquake (magnitude greater than 8) along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, as advised in the NAS Report. Although the purpose of the document is to provide guidance on SLR impacts from climate change, not tectonic hazards, it is important to communicate the role that tectonic activity can have on changing relative sea level.

• Strengthens language on impacts of storms and other extreme events. As before, planners and managers are directed to consider storms and other extreme events; however, there is greater emphasis in this version of the document towards consideration of their associated hazards. Per the findings in the NAS Rreport, the SLR Guidance stresses that most of the damage along the coast in the near term is expected to be caused by storms, in particular, the confluence of large waves, storm surges, and high astronomical tides during a strong El Niño.

Apart from the changes outlined in the four bullets, the policy recommendations in the SLR Guidance are the same as those developed in 2010.

New members of the OPC-SAT are asked to serve an initial three-year term, with the possibility of renewing for two or three years at a time. Service includes two annual in-person meetings, response to requests for experts for peer review, and potential participation in workgroups as necessary. OPC-SAT membership is intended to reflect the diversity of expertise needed to support the OPC in its mission of science supported policy decisions. 

For more information, please read the full solicitation.

The California State Coastal Conservancy (“Conservancy”) anticipates a need for environmental, engineering, architectural, landscape architectural, and construction project management consulting services for Conservancy projects and programs and for California Ocean Protection Council (“OPC”) projects and programs, undertaken by the Conservancy on behalf of the OPC, over the next twelve months.

The Conservancy seeks Statements of Qualifications from individuals and firms providing these services. A Statement of Qualifications is a profile of your firm describing: key personnel and relevant education and experience; projects your firm has done, including geographic location; areas of specialization; and relevant professional licenses, certifications and awards. All information received will be put into database form, and kept on file for at least one year from the date of this Request. Conservancy staff will use this information in soliciting services, as needed, for upcoming OPC and Conservancy projects. Any resulting contract will be awarded without discrimination based on race, color, ethnic group identification, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin. Specific project details including contract identification numbers are not available at this point.

The Conservancy acts to preserve, restore and enhance California’s coastal and marine resources and to solve land use problems on the coast and around San Francisco Bay. The OPC coordinates agency activities to create effective conservation efforts and establish policies that preserve, protect, and enhance marine resources. In addition, the OPC funds innovative projects that directly relate to the ocean or coast as well as the scientific study of ocean and coastal resources. Conservancy and OPC projects fall within the following categories: (1) public access (e.g., trails, bridges, parking, recreational and interpretive facilities); (2) revitalization of urban waterfronts and shoreline facilities; (3) resource conservation and enhancement (e.g., restoration and enhancement of wetlands and endangered species’ habitats); (4) coastal restoration (e.g., lot consolidation; transfer of development rights; coastal land acquisition); (5) agricultural land preservation (e.g., acquisition of interests in coastal agricultural land and resolution of land use problems); (6) watershed restoration to improve water quality; (7) coastal and marine habitat, ocean health and water quality research, monitoring, restoration, and protection; (8) coastal ocean resource conservation and management; and (9) marine and coastal resource education.

In connection with projects in these areas, we are soliciting consultants with experience and expertise in: terrestrial, subtidal, and ocean floor surveying and mapping; climate change issues; construction project management; civil and hydrological engineering; habitat restoration design; landscape architecture; trail planning and engineering; water quality assessment; geotechnical and geomorphic assessment; structural analyses; pre-project feasibility analyses; economic analyses; hazardous or toxic substance investigations; wetland, watershed, or subtidal assessments; archaeological studies; environmental documentation and assessment under the California Environmental Quality Act and other environmental laws and regulation; botanical studies; agricultural studies; soil analyses; biological investigations; fisheries stock assessment; natural resource permitting; site and land use planning; design review; environmental monitoring; and other program-related environmental services, such as appraisals for resource conservation purposes.

To download the required questionnaire, please visit www.scc.ca.gov. To submit your completed questionnaire and Statement of Qualifications, please write to Mary Aledo, State Coastal Conservancy, 1330 Broadway, 13th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612 or maledo@scc.ca.gov. Please submit the questionnaire and your Statement of Qualifications as two separate pdf documents, either mailed on a CD or emailed as attachments (if the total file size does not exceed 2 MB). Hard copies are not necessary or desired.

Download

Questionnaire to download for contractors wishing to respond to the annual Request for Qualifications. Requires Adobe Acrobat.

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