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City of Boston Launches Heat Sensor Pilot to Fill Critical Data Gaps

Published by A Better City in their Heat Sensor Program Launch Press Release

July 16, 2024


Partnership Between A Better City, The Boston Foundation, Boston University School of

Public Health, and City of Boston Launches Heat Sensor Pilot to Fill Critical Data Gaps in

Measuring the Lived Experience of Extreme Heat in Boston’s Hotspot Communities.


Heat Sensor Pilot Project Team Launches the First Sensor Installation at Boston

Chinatown Neighborhood Center. Photo Credit: A Better City and Boston University.


Initiative to install sensors throughout the City of Boston to help close data gaps in measuring live temperature data across Boston’s neighborhoods, to provide more accurate indicators for heat waves and official heat emergency declarations, and to guide data-informed resource allocation.


(Boston, MA) July 16, 2024 – A Better City, in partnership with The Boston Foundation, Boston University’s School of Public Health, and the City of Boston’s Environment Department (with input from the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics and Green New Deal team), celebrates the launch of a heat sensor pilot program to address the significant data gaps in measuring live temperature data across Boston’s hotspot neighborhoods, which can be 10-15 degrees warmer than surrounding neighborhoods. A total of 15 sensors were installed at 12 A Better City member and partner properties, as well as on 3 City-owned trees, across hotspot neighborhoods in Boston. This pilot program aims to provide neighborhood-specific temperature data to augment National Weather Service station data and to better inform City officials in declaring heat emergencies and advisories and in supporting vulnerable Bostonians. The results of this pilot will help inform the city, local institutions, and community-based partners on how to distribute available resources to heat-vulnerable residents, workers, and neighborhoods on hot days. Data may more broadly guide future policy initiatives for community heat resilience undertaken by both the public and private sectors.


Currently, there is only one National Weather Service temperature sensor in the City of Boston, located at Logan Airport, which determines the official temperature for the entire city. To reach a declared heat emergency in Boston, the National Weather Service sensor at Logan must register 95 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for two consecutive days, yet temperatures in some hotspot neighborhoods are likely reaching this threshold much sooner and more frequently. The data collected by the 15 sensors will be used to compare neighborhood readings against the official National Weather Service temperature readings to help provide a better understanding of the existing data gaps and inform the provision of heat relief efforts.


Through this pilot program, sensors have been placed in hotspot neighborhoods as defined and identified in the City of Boston 2022 Heat Plan, and in close proximity to socially vulnerable populations, including in the neighborhoods of Chinatown, Dorchester, East Boston, Mattapan, and Roxbury, as well as in Allston-Brighton and Jamaica Plain. This pilot builds upon existing research done by the City of Boston, C-HEAT, Wicked Hot Boston, Wicked Hot Mystic, and others, and aims to lay a foundation for future work to establish a permanent temperature sensor network and publicly accessible dashboard of neighborhood-specific live temperature data in future years.


The pilot project team is grateful for the partnership of A Better City member and partner

organizations: Arnold Arboretum (Harvard University), Bay Cove Human Services, Boston

Children’s Hospital, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Boston Green Academy, Boston Medical Center, Charles River Community Health, City of Boston’s Urban Forestry Division, Franklin Park Zoo, Greenway Conservancy, Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition, Museum of Science, and UMass Boston. A Better City first committed to addressing extreme heat as a racial and climate justice issue within our 2021 Equity in the Built Environment Action Plan and has facilitated an Extreme Heat Working Group of member and partner organizations working with the City on heat solutions implementation since December 2022. A Better City members are interested in participating in the heat sensor pilot to better understand how to protect their workers, patients, students, vulnerable communities, businesses, and critical infrastructure from the increasing impacts of extreme heat.


“Extreme heat is already impacting our vulnerable communities and infrastructure alike, so it is critical to measure real impacts and develop real resilience solutions with a sense of urgency,” said Kate Dineen, President and CEO of A Better City. “This collaborative partnership will gather continuous temperature data in hotspot neighborhoods, where temperatures can be a staggering 10-15 degrees warmer than surrounding neighborhoods with more tree cover. We believe there may be instances of heat emergency conditions in hotspot communities of color that are likely not being counted in official heat emergency declarations due to the variances in neighborhood temperature from Logan Airport.”


The near-term goals of this program are: to understand whether the future deployment of

permanent sensors through a public-private partnership could enable more targeted and

equitable heat emergency protocols for the city’s neighborhoods; to understand the barriers to installing sensors across the city; and to analyze the difference in temperature between hotspot neighborhoods and cooler locations for heat relief, such as parks and green spaces. A longer-term vision includes a public-private cross-jurisdictional partnership that could help share extreme heat data across institutions, mobilize shared resources in advance of and during extreme heat emergencies, identify locations for potential community resilience hubs, and develop equitable extreme heat policy priorities to inform city- and state-level advocacy. The project will collect temperature data from June-September 2024, with data analysis supported by Boston University School of Public Health researchers and a pilot project write-up with key lessons learned to come by winter 2024.


Additional Statements from Sensor Host Site Partners

Shavel’le Olivier, Executive Director, Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition (MFFC)


Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition (MFFC) is happy to partner with A Better City to collect

temperature data in Mattapan. Extreme heat, along with extreme weather challenges, water

pollution, reduction of emissions, and the like are important factors to consider when supporting the health of a community. When we are able to combine the work at MFFC of engaging residents in ways to make the neighborhood more environmentally friendly through programming such as our bike rides and food access work, coupled with educational resources, we can work towards a healthy and thriving community.


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