Infrastructure is in crisis. In the United States alone,
the America Society of Civil Engineers estimates over $2 Trillion US are needed
between 2010 and 2015 in critical infrastructure repairs . Facing the largest funding gap is levee infrastructure for
which a mere 2% of required spending is allocated.
This project takes a critical look at the use of delta polders to effectively absorb high delta waters, to the benefit of the
entire delta system. This
mitigates the current need to bolster the entire delta?s levee system, totaling
nearly 1,100 miles of infrastructure with a proposal to reimagine 51 miles of levees surrounding 4 polder islands. Additionally a fresh water reserve
is created to reestablish a functioning delta ecosystem. Paramount to the
project is a reconceptualization of the points of transference of water through
the new levee system and the levee edge itself.
While the solutions to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta?s issues will not be solved by one single intervention, and likely not by
a handful, a shift is necessary to move away from the myopic and unfeasible
practices currently in place. A determination of rebuilding a failing
infrastructure can and will only lead to a continuation of the crisis. Rather
an alternative should be sought, which works with the necessity for logistics,
structural and ecological infrastructures, providing a resiliency for the
future. It is this staging ground upon which new adaptations might take place.