The Fraser River Delta Collaborative: Advancing Design for Sea Level Rise in the Fraser River Delta

BACK TO AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE PAGE

2022 | Research

UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), Hapa Collaborative, PFS Studio, PWL Partnership, space2place

A design-research project initiated by UBC and the Principals of four Vancouver landscape architecture firms, this project co-develops innovative landscape-based adaptation strategies for sea level rise (SLR) across multiple scales and jurisdictions in the Fraser River Delta. Funded with a Mitacs Grant from 2018-2021, four summer research internships were offered at firms for students to gain professional skills, while also co-developing methods and projects related to coastal adaptation for outreach to governmental agencies and the public. The project stresses the multi-functional potentials of landscape based approaches to SLR while working to advance collaborative, cross-jurisdictional planning and design approaches in a context where federal and provincial governments have downloaded responsibility for flood-risk management to individual municipalities with no mediating body.