Planning for the Balance of Danger and Delight

Abstract

As a species, we are drawn to water and to marine edges and we gain many benefits from the blue, including wonder, enjoyment, stress reduction and greater meaning in life. Yet there are corresponding dangers associated with proximity to water, and climate change and sea level rise represent serious physical (and social and economic) design and planning challenges. The vision and practice of blue biophilic cities understands the need to balance the danger and delight: not only to provide new connections to water, but also creatively seek to adapt in ways that will make a city more resilient in the face of these physical forces.