The Bay Area is made up of nine counties and 101 cities, each with its own politics, local rules and shorelines, differences that can make it complicated to figure out how to protect billions of dollars of highways, airports, sewage treatment plants, homes and offices from the rising seas, surging tides and extreme storms climate change is expected to bring in the years ahead.

San Francisco Bay’s waters already have risen 8 inches since the mid-1800s. A tide gauge at Fort Point, next to the Golden Gate Bridge, has recorded measurements since 1850.

Recent studies by the U.S. Geological Survey, National Academy of Sciences and other scientific organizations estimate that, depending on the amounts of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere in the coming years, the Pacific Ocean on the West coast — and in turn, the water in San Francisco Bay — will rise up to two feet by 2050 and up to five feet by 2100.

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