Posts Taged climate-adaptation

19
Jul

Leveraging Open Data for Climate Resilience Planning in Boston

Prioritizing cost-effective green infrastructure interventions in South Boston

Boston’s largest waterside park, the Joseph Moakley Park, separating South Boston from Dorchester, is currently undergoing a comprehensive planning review that seeks to address the area’s growing vulnerability to stormwater and flooding events. Last year’s much heralded Boston Climate Adaptation report warned that the low lying topography of the park and flanking I-93 provides a critical flooding pathway from Dorchester Bay exposing land-inward neighborhoods including South Boston and the South End.

Modeling flooding probabilities around Joseph Moakley Park

The modeling results below, which I generated with a new tool from the Trust for Public Land, illustrate exemplarily that by 2070 the chances are 10-50% in any given year that the immediate areas around Joseph Moakley Park (signified by red dot on map below) are flooded. This corresponds to an average flooding recurrence interval of every 2-10 years for those areas colored light purple (on average every 10 years) to azure-blue (on average every 2 years).

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21
Apr

Municipal Collaboration on Coastal Climate Change Adaptation

Banner_Municipal Collaboration Climate Adaptation Mass

Picture Credits (all Flickr, occ. cropped, left to right): Jasperdo, Doug Kerr, Robert Linsdell, cmh2315fl, massmat , Jennifer Macaulay, Tom Whitten

Constraints and Opportunities for North and South Shore municipalities in Massachusetts

Municipalities_MA

This research looks at coastal adaptation capacity constraints and collaboration opportunities of Massachusetts coastal municipalities from Newburyport in the north and Marshfield in the south (see right for map of included municipalities). Thematically, it is concerned foremost with the effects of both sea level rise and extreme weather events on coastal infrastructure and ecosystems in the region. Building on 21 conversations with municipality representatives, nongovernment conservation groups, Commonwealth departments and agencies and many more, it sets out to answer the following three questions: 

  • What are the greatest constraints at the municipal level to implement coastal adaptation strategies?
  • Is there potential for greater inter-municipal collaboration on adaptation? If yes, on which issues?
  • Which stakeholders should be included to in these collaborations?

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