Amphibious City: Sustainable Adaptations to Sea Level Rise in Seattle’s Interbay Area

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Sea-level rise poses major challenges to coastal land uses, and therefore to urban design processes. The project is intended to create an innovative, sustainable and workable urban design plan. In the Seattle Interbay Area, the water along Seattle’s Puget Sound shoreline has risen by more than 6 inches during the past century (Climate Impacts Group,2013). Climate change is expected to accelerate rising sea levels during the next century. Mean projections indicate that Seattle will experience 7 inches of sea-level rise by 2050, and 24 inches by 2100 (GGLO Design, 2015). While chronic inundation is a concern, sea-level rise impacts will first be noticed episodically with more frequent tidal flooding events. As a result, there is a need to inspire creative thinking on how to integrate existing and future built environments with predicted coastal processes. I intended to provide coastal communities design concepts and ideas that create shoreline communities that address coastal hazards and preserve and enhance coastal resources. The project seeks to find the balancing point between people and nature, which is when sea level rise, how to survive because of flooding in the next hundred years. The design solution is an embodiment of cultural representation and technology of stormwater management in order to achieve ecological and social resilience which is life, produce and ecology.