Subtheme: Climate Vulnerability & Environmental Justice

In greater Boston, climate vulnerability is inseparable from the inequalies of housing affordability and displacement. As sea levels rise along the Massachusetts Bay and extreme heat intensifies, climate risks disproportionately affect low-income and communities of color. Both Massachusetts state and the City of Boston are working towards planning for a more resilient future for residents with the ResilientMass Plan and the 2030 Climate Action Plan. Climate vulnerability assesses the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of communities to cope with extreme climate events, while an environmental justice framework prioritizes resources and investments for disadvantaged communities to prepare for climate resiliency. Similarly, efforts to improve energy efficiency, while keeping homes affordable include incentives and funding to support with building retrofitting improvements and energy saving strategies.

As we consider the landscape of climate justice in Boston, what communities are the most vulnerable? What communities will be most affected by flooding? By extreme heat? Where should public housing investments for retrofitting energy efficient buildings go first? How successful have incentive programs been at catalyzing changes in energy efficiency?

Background Reading

  1. 2030 Climate Action Plan (City of Boston) - a climate justice centered roadmap that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, build resilience to climate impacts, and ensure that all benefit from climate action.
  2. Climate Vulnerability playbook (MAPC) - A planning resource that provides guidance and strategies on climate resilience planning and implementation processes that involve community engagement, partnerships, and more.
  3. Climate Resilience (City of Boston) - Mayor Wu’s initiative on making Boston climate-ready, with topics including: coastal resilience, stormwater management, extreme heat, and zoning guidelines.
    • Homeworks Green Loan Program - This program provides financial assistance incentives for homeowners to make energy-saving repairs to lower energy costs and improve comfort.
    • Healthy and Green Retrofit Program - A pilot policy program that provides funding incentives for home owner-occupants to improve building energy envelope.
  4. Guides for Equitable & Actionable Resilience (GEAR): Housing × Inland Flooding (ResilientMass) - Strategies to plan for housing resilience that addresses inland flooding. How does flooding affect our homes? Who might be most affected? How might inland flooding affect environmental justice and other priority populations?
  5. Guides for Equitable & Actionable Resilience (GEAR): Housing Heat (ResilientMass) - Strategies to plan for housing resilience that addresses extreme heat effects. How does increased heat affect where we live? Who might be most affected? How does increased heat relate to increased housing insecurity?
  6. How flood-ravaged Boston took on the climate deniers – and won (The Guardian) - Boston faces increasingly frequent coastal flooding, and climate resilience planning and infrastructure are needed to protect the city from rising sea levels and extreme weather.

Datasets for the Final Project

  1. Climate Vulnerability in Greater Boston, MAPC, 2019 - The impacts of climate change are not distributed equally. The climate vulnerability data explores the Greater Boston’s exposure climate hazards, access to resources, and ability to plan for and rebuild after a climate event. Explore how the vulnerability index and investigate how heat and flood vulnerability affect different populations. Includes geographic data at the census tract level.
  2. Residential & Low Income Incentives and Savings, MassSave, 2015 - Municipal level data that provides support evaluating energy policy incentives for residential and low income sectors from MassSave. The data includes dollars spent and annual energy usage and savings on electricity and gas.
  1. Smart Growth Zoning Overlay District Act (MA General Laws Chapter 40R) - Encourages communities to create dense residential or mixed-use smart growth zoning districts, including a high percentage of affordable housing units, to be located near transit stations, in areas of concentrated development such as existing city and town centers, and in other highly suitable locations.
  2. ResilientMass Plan - Prioritization of climate action for communities of color, low-income groups, certain immigrant groups, and people with limited English proficiency, who live in locations that are more. prone to climate-related health hazards, including extreme heat, flooding, and pollution from industrial sources.
  3. Energy Affordability, Independence & Innovation Act - Programs, incentives, and products that will help residents save energy and money in their homes, including MassSave
  4. Affordable Homes Act - There is a capital authorization for funding projects to decarbonize public housing. Retrofitting for high-efficiency, zero-carbon buildings may include strategies such as installing heat pumps, improving insulation, and installing solar.