Daily Archives: February 24, 2017

Will The Corporate Media Stand Against Trumps Attacks?

Sea Change Boston

http://seachange.sasaki.com/

Sea Change: Boston—Engaging the Community

Climate Ready Boston Released

http://www.sasaki.com/blog/view/870/

and

http://seachange.sasaki.com/
December 8, 2016

Today marks the release of Climate Ready Boston, a bold initiative that examines the possible impacts of climate change to the city over the next century. You can download the complete report here, or read on for a high-level overview below.

What is Climate Ready Boston?

It’s a roadmap for Boston to be better prepared for coastal, riverine, and stormwater flooding and impacts of heat. The report identifies vulnerabilities, analyzes, and quantifies projected annualized losses, and outlines opportunities to mitigate impacts. In addition to protecting against future flooding and other impacts, resiliency planning works towards opportunities to make Boston an increasingly livable city. Climate Ready Boston offers approaches to preparing the city for uncertain future events, improving the city’s vibrancy, and spurring responsible economic development. Boston’s work in this topic area has very real implications for the future of the city, but also sets an example for resilience planning and investment that leads the region and the nation.

What was the impetus for this initiative?

Climate Ready Boston builds on years of research and discussion on sea level rise in the city. A series of related studies were conducted by a mixture of civic, non-profit, and for-profit entities, including: the City of Boston, Boston Harbor Now, Sasaki, and the Green Ribbon Commission. This precedent work culminated in the City of Boston successfully applying for a Department of Coastal Zone Management grant to complete a detailed vulnerability assessment.

(read more).

See particularly:

sea-change-bos

Sustainable Solutions Lab – University of Massachusetts Boston

https://www.umb.edu/ssl

Problems

The destabilization of natural systems and the cascading damage of human systems have profound implications for security, prosperity, and justice in this century that compel us to innovate and to act. This crisis also offers a historic opportunity and obligation to employ our ingenuity to discover solutions that lie on the boundaries where disciplines blur.

Solutions

The Sustainable Solutions Lab at UMass Boston (SSL) will leverage Greater Boston and the East Coast region as a “test bed” for the development, testing, and implementation of solutions that are environmentally sound, economically sustainable, and socially just.

SSL will actively work to match faculty across disciplines and to build a bridge between practitioners in the community, business, and government to identify research that might have the most significant practical effects.

The Sustainable Solutions Lab at UMass Boston will also enhance the activities of existing centers, institutes, and academic programs by coordinating and supporting fundraising and grants, educational programs, social media and outreach, convenings, and conferences.

Why It Works

The transformational power and potential of the Sustainable Solutions Lab at UMass Boston draws from

  • the distinctive expertise of UMass Boston faculty
  • UMass Boston’s culture of cross-disciplinary collaboration and integrative applied research
  • innovative partnerships both on- and off-campus
  • dynamic, effective ongoing interactions with regional businesses, environmental and community-based organizations, and local, national, and international policymakers