All Bay Collective (ABC) team member and UC Berkeley Professor Kristina Hill worked with the East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative to explore groundwater conditions in East Oakland as part of a semester-long case study for graduate students. Kristina has been working with her students to map soil contamination in relation to groundwater flow directions, and continue to refine the “wet models,” which originated during the Resilient by Design Bay Area project. The side map shows how tidal action and topography influence groundwater flow directions in East Oakland. The work shows how the creation of canals could drain groundwater out of existing blocks to keep people in place as long as possible. 

The groundwater mapping work which was furthered through the RBD process (with ABC team member Kris May) has been published in the journal Water, “A Rapid Assessment Method to Identify Potential Groundwater Flooding Hotspots as Sea Levels Rise in Coastal Cities.” 

The In It Together board game was staged at the National Adaptation Forum (April 2019) and the YBCA Culture for Community Game Night (March 2019). The game was also featured on Fast Company, and is currently being refined for mass production and publication with Room and Board Games. The game is also planned to be played at the Resilient Florida workshop at the beginning of May 2020.

Team Member Janette Kim from the California College of the Arts also presented at SPUR’s event “Engaging Communities in Resilience Planning” in October along with Keta Price, Urban Planning Officer of the East Oakland Collective. Panelists discussed innovative techniques for involving local residents in productive dialogue around the implications of global warming in their neighborhoods. Other team members presented at the AIA Regional Urban Design Symposium, and the National Adaptation Forum, May 2019.

The ABC project working group, including community based organization leaders, cities and other agencies reconvened at the end of 2019 to check in on progress of different resilience projects and restate their collective ambition to continue to collaborate.  The meeting spurred renewed collaboration between the Oakland Airport, City of Alameda and East Bay Regional Park District and a commitment to look for funding opportunities to continue to push key concepts forward.