Urban Heat Resilience

This functional plan contains strategies to help the community address the harms associated with increasing temperatures in urban areas. It gives an overview of the impacts of extreme heat on public health and how some strategies can help reduce or moderate temperatures. Some of these strategies include promoting cooling solutions such as the use of colored materials and the expansion of the urban forest. This plan is part of the Resilient Cambridge program that seeks to increase the community’s resilience to climate change impacts and improve the quality of life of its residents. The program also developed an Urban Heat Island Technical Report that contains cooling scenarios for the city.