UMass Boston

Reports offer critical findings for Massachusetts communities struggling to plan for our changing climate.

In early 2016, the Boston Research Advisory Group released its inaugural findings about possible climate changes in Boston over this century, which were then used in the later landmark Climate Ready Boston report on the vulnerability of the city to climate change. The research group was comprised of leading scientists from the northeastern U.S. led by the School for the Environment at the University of Massachusetts Boston, with guidance from a steering committee of stakeholders from the region.

Funded again by the Barr Foundation and now broadened to include the 101 Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) cities and towns, the Greater Boston Research Advisory Group (GBRAG) undertook to provide the City of Boston and surrounding municipalities with updated information that can be used to assess risk factors resulting from climate change. This resulted in the 2022 report Climate Change Impacts and Projections for the Greater Boston Area.

Further it was decided to present information to the MAPC region in a way that is relevant for communities struggling to plan for our changing climate. A coordinated outreach to the GBRAG communities was undertaken that included online surveys and in-person interviews. The results of this outreach were compiled into a list of risk factors of most concern and interest to the MAPC communities and for which data, or design values, would need to be collected to prepare for these climate change risk factors. The outreach effort identified two previously unassessed risk factors, namely changes in groundwater and the marine environments. Climate Change Impacts on Groundwater in MAPC Communities was released in 2022 and Climate Change Impacts on the Marine Environment in the Greater Boston Area was released in 2024.

All three reports linked here may be updated every three to five years to account for newly reported research on local climate changes.

Climate Change Impacts on the Marine Environment in the Greater Boston Area | November 2024

Climate Change Impacts on Groundwater in MAPC Communities | November 2022

Climate Change Impacts and Projections for the Greater Boston Area | June 2022