The Drowning of the Desert

A Proposed Flood:

Joel E. Cohen noted in 1995 that the “finiteness of the earth guarantees that ceilings on human numbers do exist.”1 However, he also noted that economic, and political forces will play equally integral roles in shaping the sustainability of the earth’s population, and its footprint on the ecology of the planet. Presently, as the world’s population charges toward 10 billion people, and with greenhouse gas emissions continually on the rise, human impact on the natural systems which sustain our livelihood has never been greater.2 Reckless resource consumption and production on a global scale reflect political barriers, as nationalist prosperity among the world’s countries is sought with little regard for the sustenance of collective humanity. Currently, the manner in which western society dwells is unsustainable, and the American dream has become a pervasive idea which encourages consumption without accountability to the greater ecology of the planet. Yet, the dream persists, and without drastic societal or political reform on the horizon, negative trends in climate change will be accelerated. The IPCC’s 2013 report on the ocean and climate change states that “Sea level rise will continue beyond 2100 even if global warming is limited to 1.5°C in the 21st century (high confidence). Marine ice sheet instability in Antarctica and/or irreversible loss of the Greenland ice sheet could result in multi-metre rise in sea level. These instabilities could be triggered at around 1.5°C to 2°C of global warming (medium confidence).”2

A simulation is proposed in which the site will change based on the aforementioned projected climate metrics. An anticipated flood resulting from the collapse of one of the world’s three major ice sheets (East Antarctic, West Antarctic, or Greenland) will impose a radically changed site - the Salton Sea will swell to six times its current size.3 This alteration in site will test how architecture can be a crucial component in responding to climate change.

How will a speculative city design begin to adapt to this change? Post-flood city architectures in this neo-future will utilize a subject (individual) and object (architecture) to create relationships and animate the speculative city as a live matrix. Specific architectures within the city will be designed in detail to channel the mandate of this new method of settlement.

1- Joel E. Cohen, “How Many People Can the Earth Support?,” The Sciences 35, no. 6 (1995): 19. 2- IPCC, Long-TermClimateChange:Projections,CommitmentsandIrreversibility, London: Cambridge University Press, 2013, 1112.

3- 10- Chris Clarke, “Global Warming, Storm Surges & the Mother Of All Desert Floods,” Socal Focus, September 14, 2011. https://www.kcet. org/socal-focus/global-warming-storm-surges-the-motherof-all-desert-floods.

A layered map of the proposed flood of the Imperial Valley shows the path of a storm surge originating from the Sea of Cortez. The path of this surge assumes 2o planetary warming, resulting in the collapse of one major ice sheet, and a 6m rise in global sea level.