It's said most major cultures have a flood story: Noah and the ark for Christians, Muslims and Jews; Gilgamesh for the Babylonians; or the Pachachama floods from the Incas, for example.

And now global warming or climate change for modern times may make those stories come alive again in this century.

Whether you agree with the science or not, preparations are underway in the Bay Area in hopes of dealing with the possibility of Bay waters rising -- and rising dramatically during the next three generations.

"The Bay is huge,” noted Larry Goldzband, executive director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. “The Bay has actually about 500 miles of shoreline."

"The Bay will fundamentally change. And we need to accept that," added Goldzband.

Ironically, the BCDC formed in the late 1960s in response to the public outcry over the shrinking of the Bay because of fill.

Today, the BCDC finds itself having to protect the Bay from growing too large.

"For example, you could be talking about sea walls," Goldzband said. "Practically, the question is 'what can we afford not to do.’ "

How bad could it be?

A futuristic map designed by a British computer scientist visualizes what could happen here in the bay area if the waters rise.

Climate scientists say that by 2030, the Bay could rise by a full foot; by 2050, two feet; and by the turn of the next century, just under 6 feet.

In this scenario, the critical Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta becomes completely submerged.

And what about developments now proposed around the Bay?

Developer Mike Ghielmetti is planning to build a 5,000-population neighborhood on an industrial wasteland along the Oakland shoreline just south of Jack London Square. It's called "Oak-to-Ninth."

"The project is about 65 acres,” Ghielmetti said. “About half of it will be new parks, about the size of Marina Green (in San Francisco) and the rest of it will be new development: condominiums, new retail, and new marinas.

"When we were approved by the Bay Conservation and Development Commission a little over a year and half ago we were the first project to meet their new guidelines."

That means raising the land by about three feet and engineering to hold back or channel rising waters.

In Sacramento, state officials who pay attention to the Delta's controversial situation say their best research suggests the Bay will rise no more than 39 inches by the turn of the century, but even that means drastic changes for the entire San Francisco Bay Area.