This is bothering me. People don't seem to be aware of ocean levels rising. A $2.1 trillion infrastructure plan that doesn't include raising sea walls or infrastructure that can absorb or redirect water. It would be nothing within a budget of that scale.

What does it take to reinforce a wall? Is concrete the strongest material we have in building? What form should reinforcement take?

-impermeability and Strength: structure with many layers of reinforcement

-of course, it is the ground behind the immediate barrier that needs to hold

Need better predictions about the volume of water

-will ice in deeper portions of the ocean melt?

(-the obvious still needed: what is the volume of ice quite certain to melt Intuition: an educated guess is better than nothing)

-rate of water level rising

-given that we are concerned with only the surface layer of the ocean, possibly the pressure would be less than what initially appears

Complex problems usually require complex solutions  

-was the land elevation survey done: then, prioritization and traffic planning

(-water, food, shelter, communication, transportation)

  Buildings, especially aging buildings, do have to be maintained. When necessary and appropriate, a restorer could be invited to conduct an evaluation for reference.

  Green infrastructure is about infrstructure that loves and cares for the planet.  

Carl Sagan: "Cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known"

Green infrastructure is the priority for innovations in infrastructure.

-don't forget the ones already pioneered, waiting for the patent process

Related, there is also Hyper-natural by Blaine Brownell and Marc Swackhamer from Architecture Briefs The foundations of Architecture, published by Princeton Architectural Press.

  regarding thinking in other modes of thought

Something I have dealt with before

It is possible, of course, to apply a specific mode of thought to all areas of life and see the wilderness for your self through the prism of that mode of thought.

It is not, however, practical, to travel this way if it transports you to places you did not intend to go. We should guess first where we are going and what it is like and if we want to go there before we actually go there.

"When you think, you travel."

It is probably better to survey what the sights are that you are intending to see first, before you arrive.

It is also better to imagine a few thoughts and ideas, even hypotheses, about what you expect to encounter and discover: this is a way to maintain the intended domain for the possibilities at disclosure.

  could sprawling be a problem that could be partially or initially addressed with the placement of meta elements and increasing the intricacy and extent of infrastructure such as paths and parks?

  In retrospect, I think part of the difficulty of the dilemma was the deep wish to believe that histories and their associated things that enable memory should be due each place and people.

"[a] new world opens."  (what was said there before)