Cambridge Officials Working On Climate Change Plan

CAMBRIDGE, MA - As the effects from global warming increase, Cambridge and Alewife in particular could experience increasing temperatures and precipitation as well as storm surge flooding associated with sea-level rise if no action is taken, according to city planners.

The Climate Change Preparedness and Resilience Plan for the Alewife area represents the first component of a citywide plan to address the physical and social risks to Cambridge from the changing climate. That plan is scheduled to wrap up next year.

The CCPR Plan proposes to reduce the community's risks through four categories of strategies: A Prepared Community, Adapted Buildings, Resilient Infrastructure, and Resilient Ecosystems. The draft plan has been issued in advance of the public meeting: access a draft of the CCPR Preparedness Plan here and the CCPR Alewife Preparedness Handbook here.

Last month, planners unveiled a draft version of the Climate Change Preparedness & Resilience (CCPR) Plan for the Alewife area, according to Wicked Local.

“It’s almost like a deep dive into that one area,” explained Iram Farooq, assistant city manager for Community Development, after the presentation. “We’ll learn a lot, and think about what that means for the citywide scale. Starting in Alewife is important because it’s one of the parts of the city that has the greatest vulnerabilities.”

Pointing to a graph displaying the expected increase in household cooling days and decrease in heating days, City Engineer Kathy Watkins said during her presentation that climbing temperatures are one of the vulnerabilities.

“When we look at the climate change impacts we see increasing heat events, so nearly three months [with temperatures] over 90 degrees by 2070,” Watkins said.

Flooding is also a concern, which is why the city created an online “Flood Viewer” tool that allows residents to enter their addresses and check if their properties will be affected by future flooding events, Watkins announced.

To read the full article, visit Wicked Local.

You can find more information about the climate plan at the CCPR project webpage.

Courtesy Photo / City of Cambridge