Ocean Beach Master Plan

Ocean Beach’s traditional coastal management approach has relied on seawalls and hard structures, significantly impacting the beach and its users. The Ocean Beach Master Plan represents a first-of-its-kind effort to address and plan for long-term adaptations in response to sea-level rise and climate change.

ESA collaborated with the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) to develop an extensive interagency and public process for Ocean Beach, resulting in a comprehensive vision to address sea-level rise, protect infrastructure, restore coastal ecosystems, and improve public access.

Our team provided technical analysis and guidance related to coastal dynamics, management, and engineering, including analysis and assessment of the potential impacts of sea-level rise, beach nourishment, armoring, and retreat using a scenario-based planning methodology. This included supporting public meetings and workshops, often presenting an analyses directly to the community and stakeholders. We projected sea-level rise for the identified timeframe, consistent with state guidance, and based on extreme wave runup and overtopping analyses, estimated the approximate extents of coastal erosion and flood hazard zones. We developed several management scenarios that considered different degrees of intervention—from a focus on protecting infrastructure using seawalls and structures, to ecosystem-based concepts incorporating retreat and restoration. Ultimately, a hybrid approach was selected, presented, and recommended.

ESA continue to assist SPUR in advancing the selected approach. Our team developed a vulnerability assessment and adaptation feasibility study for implementing portions of the master plan that would protect the Lake Merced Transport tunnel, allowing beach restoration efforts to remove asphalt, concrete, and rock debris that are currently protecting the bluff. Working in collaboration with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and coordinating with the National Park Service, our team is assessing the limits and likelihood of short- and long-term erosion, reviewing available geotechnical information, evaluating the structural integrity of the tunnel under different soil conditions, and analyzing the engineering feasibility of constructing a low-profile wall protection device.

ESA developed an immediate-term coastal management plan that outlines three low-risk operations that may be used to protect portions of threatened bluff in the event of an emergency. The results from these studies inform a draft interagency management agreement that will be used to identify the responsible parties, their roles, the phasing of implementation, and the groundwork for completing regulatory compliance and environmental review.