Preparing for the Rising Tide provides policy makers, planners and property owners with site-specific examples of how to assess vulnerability and increase resilience to coastal flooding over time. Coastal flooding occurs due to extreme weather events, high tides, sea level rise, or a combination of all three. Coastal flooding is expected to increase in frequency and severity as climate change increases both the average sea level and possibly the intensity of storm events over the coming decades. Some neighborhoods in Boston are more susceptible to flooding than others. For example, portions of the downtown historic wharves and the neighborhood around Fort Point Channel already flood several times per year during extra-high full- and new-moon high tides. Other areas, notably areas of the city not filled in over the last three centuries, are on higher ground. Climate change mitigation involves the cumulative impact of individual decisions on a global scale. But while carbon emissions from one source can be effectively offset by carbon mitigation elsewhere, climate change preparedness must be done at a local scale based on site-specific vulnerabilities.