Case Study Date: 2019; 2021
City of Boston is an important economic and cultural hub of the region. It is also the home of the largest population in New England. Its geographical location exposes it to heavy rain and snow.
Summary of Findings
Boston’s network of plan, overall, reduces the city’s vulnerability to flooding. However, it fails to target the physically more vulnerable areas. Unlike the plan network in general, the equity-policy portion of the network generally worsens the city’s vulnerability to flooding.
Plans Evaluated
- Metro-Boston Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan
- Columbia Point Master Plan
- Greenovate Boston Climate Action Plan
- Open Space Plan
- Housing a Changing City Boston 2030
- Roxbury Strategic Master Plan [examined only in the PIRS analysis about equity policies]
Boston, MA
City of Boston is the state capital of Massachusetts. It is the most populous city in New England and the economic and cultural center of the Greater Boston area. It situates along the North Atlantic coast, which moderates the city’s temperature. However, this geographical location enables the Nor’easter weather systems to heavily influence Boston, which bring heavy snow and rain to the city.
Findings of the Overall Network of Plans:
The network of plans in Boston has a mean policy score of 0.81, suggesting that, in general, the network supports the reduction of vulnerability to flooding. However, the network fails to target the districts with a greater degree of physical vulnerability. It is apparent from the fact that the Pearson’s r correlation between a district’s physical vulnerability and its summed policy score is negative (-0.25).
Concerning exclusively about equity policies, Boston’s plan network has a negative mean policy score. It suggests that the equity-policy portion of Boston’s plan network heightens the city’s vulnerability to flooding. Boston, in fact, includes a well-integrated set of policies that support equity based on the Smart Growth concept, but these same policies receive negative scores when considering them from the perspective of vulnerability reduction. The housing plan and both small area plans (Columbia Point Master Plan and Roxbury Master Plan) include equity policies that support more affordable housing and promote opportunities for economic development in several blighted neighborhoods in hazard areas. Examples of these policies include incentives for redevelopment of vacant lands and infrastructure improvements as well as inclusionary zoning regulations aimed to include low-cost housing for new construction in areas exposed to the hundred-year floodplain and sea level rise. Meanwhile, the Pearson’s r correlations between the summed policy scores of a district and its social vulnerability are -0.29 for hundred-year floodplain and -0.25 for the projected sea level rise areas. The negative correlations suggest that the plan network fails to prioritize reducing vulnerability in the socially more vulnerable districts.
References
Berke, P. R., Malecha, M. L., Yu, S., Lee, J., & Masterson, J. H. (2019a). Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard: Evaluating Networks of Plans in Six US Coastal Cities. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 62(5), 901-920. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2018.1453354
Berke, P. R., Yu, S., Malecha, M. L., & Cooper, J. (2019b). Plans that Disrupt Development: Equity Policies and Social Vulnerability in Six Coastal Cities. Journal of Planning Education and Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X19861144
Yu, S., Malecha, M. L., & Berke, P. R. (2021). Examining Factors Influencing Plan Integration for Community Resilience in Six US Coastal Cities Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling. Landscape and Urban Planning, 215, 104224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104224
