Adaptation and Resilience Technical Assistance

SFEP’s Adaptation and Resilience Technical Assistance Program provides support to local governments, community-based organizations, and Tribes. Its operational framework is based on the Estuary Blueprint that aims to:

1. increase the pace and scale of on the ground resilience strategies both at the subregional scale and for individual projects

2. partner with local governments, community-based organizations and Tribes to fund, plan and deliver nature-based shoreline adaptation projects across the SF Bay region, and

3. Advance a range of project types and pilot projects, including horizontal levees, ecotones and living shorelines. Learn how the program can support your organization.    

    A group of three people wearing hats and backpacks stand in front of a green plot of growing wetland plants at the Oro Loma pilot horizontal levee on a bright, sunny day.
    Palo Alto Horizontal Levee Project

    NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS

    The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) defines Nature-based solutions (NbS) as actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously benefiting people and nature. 

    The Bay Area faces multiple complex, interrelated, and expensive water management and infrastructure decisions motivated by the need to remove contaminants, restore natural services to aquatic ecosystems, secure potable water resources, mitigate sea level rise impacts, and replace aging infrastructure. In addition, impacts from sea level rise and extreme storms will increase the vulnerability of wastewater treatment facilities, often located directly adjacent to the shoreline.