The project was inspired by a question about climate change: When will the water have risen? Sea level rise is not, it turns out, a steady process of creeping shorelines. Inspired by challenges explored in Rosanna Xia’s book “California Against the Sea,” we began to wonder: how many floods will it take for a piece of land to be considered part of the water? What a fascinating and murky thing to consider! How will that new shoreline reflect the potential of the future — not just a piecemeal, reactionary defense against rising waters that continue trends of disconnection, disenfranchisement, and unintended consequences?

This protocol improvement will examine and map responses to sea level rise and flooding on urban shorelines in hopes that we can answer these questions proactively. We will compare timelines and chart infrastructure changes and interrogate climate change regulations that are shaping urban waterways in cities around the world. Historic pollution, tidal range, and current will also be included to give context to the challenges that many waterways face. Outcomes of access and diversity of use and culture will be included. The result will be a tool to enable laypeople who live along waterways to more deeply consider what futures are possible and encourage more diverse participation in shaping climate change adaptations and thus the cities we live in.

Danielle Isadora Butler is an experience designer, professor, producer, and collaborator. She designs experiences, installations, and objects that create opportunities for emotional connection.

Danielle has made playgrounds that teach about cooperation, multi-sensory poetry archives that get you ready to listen, large-scale games that connect you to the place you’re in, and floating jazz clubs to prototype new ways to interact with New York Harbor.

Danielle’s skill for design, production, and facilitation pull from her previous work in restorative justice, arts education, creative technology, and circus. Danielle believes that relationship building and self-guided discovery are key to engaging people in issues that feel too large or abstract.

Danielle is passionate about improving access to the water and expanding New Yorker’s relationship to their harbor through creative interventions. She is co-founder of the Tideland Institute and co-founder and dean of the micro grant-giving organization Awesome On The Water.

Celeste LeCompte is a nonprofit leader dedicated to creating an informed, engaged public. Most recently she was the Chief Audience Officer at Chicago Public Media. Previously, she was the vice president of strategy and operations at ProPublica, the director of product at GigaOM Research, the research manager for the California Clean Energy Fund, a co-founder of Climate Confidential, and the managing editor of Sustainable Industries magazine. She is an active board member of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club and an advocate for greener, more accessible waterways throughout New York City. She is also a Waterfront Alliance-certified WEDG Associate.