The subject of a thousand think pieces and endless dinner table conversations, the considerable changes unleashed on the Bay Area by the tech industry over the past few decades are pretty undeniable. An influx of money – and its attendant culture – has remade San Francisco and the valley to its south largely in its own image, and has touched just about every other city in the Bay in some way.

But even bigger changes for the Bay Area are on the horizon, as is made clear in a new "interactive documentary" entitled The Water at Bay. Comprising a map, videos, and text, the website highlights the risks posed to region by rising sea levels, and waCs created in part by a coalition of Silicon Valley business leaders.

Can the same forces blamed for ruining the Bay Area now come to its rescue?



In order to educate local people about the dangers and challenges posed by rising sea levels, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group teamed up with the Bay Area Council and Save the Bay under the banner Our Bay on the Brink. The interactive documentary is one of several initiatives started by the group, including a documentary short released earlier this year.

"Many of the companies that power the Bay Area's economy are built right along the shoreline," Mike Mielke, Senior Vice President of Environment & Energy for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, states in the press release. "That means flooding from the next severe storm could devastate the region and have lasting impact on our region's – and the state's –economy."



Indeed, many major tech company campuses are highly vulnerable to sea level rise, including Facebook, Google and Intel. More worryingly, many of areas most at risk are home to low-income communities that don't have access to the resources of their corporate neighbors.

With a particularly nasty El Niño expected to bear down on the Bay Area, the release feels particularly well-timed. Check out the interactive documentary the Water at Bay here.