Ballona Restoration Supported by Numerous Studies

In GreenBiz.com, James Murray writes about how cities can plan for sea level rise due to climate change with "soft engineering" solutions (1).  Murray notes how traditional civil engineering tends to "pipe and pave" (and the straight, oversized concrete channel of Ballona Creek is an excellent example of this last-millennium thinking).  Alternative soft engineering solutions, such as the earthen bank meander with which the Bay Foundation is proposing to replace Ballona's channel, not only provide infrastructure benefits but add valuable habitat and general public enjoyment of more natural looking views.

The Environmental Impact Report for the Ballona restoration, due out sometime early next year, will propose several alternative plans for reconstructing what is left of the Ballona Wetlands, once covering some 1700 acres reaching from Ocean Park to Playa Del Rey, and east to Centinela Avenue.  Now reduced to about 600 acres, half of the remaining Ballona Wetlands ecological reserve is buried under 14-17 feet of fill dirt excavated from Marina Del Rey construction in the 1950-60s.  All of that dirt - up to 2 million cubic yards - needs to be removed in order to restore the land elevation to below 5 feet, the pre-Marina condition.  Within about a mile of the shoreline, ocean tides will flow inland twice each day and reach most land below 5 feet elevation.

One of the Restoration plans would replace the straight concrete Ballona Creek channel with a vegetated earthen-bank meander, surrounded by tidal marshes fed by sinewy tributary channels (see diagram).

Murray writes about how such eco-engineering concepts never have been more popular and delegates gathered at the Global Estuaries Forum in Deauville, France, last week heard of a host of examples from around the world where developers and city planners are using natural engineering to reduce flood risks and improve water quality. Such would be the case for the Ballona earthen meander plan.

A similarly forward-thinking proposal for the San Francisco Bay is being developed to tackle the increasing flood risks and sea level rise threatening the region by developing a man-made archipelago that would enable cultivated flooded areas and the creation of salt marshes. The hope is that in addition to curbing the risk presented by storm surges to Bay-front properties, the creation of new habitats could spawn new industries as oysters, shellfish and salt water crops harvested from the area.

Enjoy your Ballona Wetlands!

(1) http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2014/07/07/climate-resilience-why-slow-and-spread-beats-pave-and-pipe?m...