Here’s how horizontal levees protect shoreline projects like tidal marshes in San Francisco Bay [Video]

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — If you live around the San Francisco Bay, you’re probably familiar with cement sea walls and sturdy levees.

But, increasingly, a nature-based design is providing an alternative — one with significant benefits in the face of sea level rise.

When we first met Jessie Olson, she was in the middle of a multiyear project, to create what’s known as a horizontal levee, alongside a newly opened tidal marsh in Menlo Park.

Joined by volunteers and colleagues from Save the Bay, the team installed hundreds of plants that will help clean the bay waters as the tides surge in and out.

“A horizontal levee is not what you think of when you think of a traditional levee, something created out of concrete or riprap or human-made structures. A horizontal levee is a green space. It’s a gently sloping levee that comes out into the bay. It provides green habitat, it provides …