Brockton Climate Resiliency

What is Climate Change?

Climate change is the long-term shift in climate over time. When discussing climate change, it is important to distinguish between “climate” and “weather”. Climate is the long-term pattern of weather in a particular area usually defined as 30 years or more, while weather is the short-term change in atmospheric conditions.  Climate can be thought of the average of weather conditions over time.

Over geological time, climate change can be caused by many different things including changing solar cycles, volcanism, continental drift, and even changes in Earth’s axial tilt and orbit. These causes overlap and their impacts can cancel out or even compound. These natural cycles and events were the cause of the Ice Ages and their subsequent thaws. However, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), climate change has been mainly driven by human activities since the 1950’s. Following the Industrial Revolution, humanity has increasingly relied on the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas for power generation. Burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. These gasses, predominantly Carbon Dioxide and Methane, allow light from the sun through, but are extremely efficient in trapping heat from the sun’s light that would otherwise radiate into space – effectively warming the planet. This process is known as the greenhouse effect because it is the exact mechanism that allows a greenhouse to grow plants during the winter.

How does Climate Change affect me in Brockton?

A 2021 analysis conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded that the most severe harms of climate change will fall disproportionately on underserved communities who are least able to prepare for, and recover from, heat waves, poor air quality, flooding, and other impacts. The EPA report titled Climate Change and Social Vulnerability in the United States: A Focus on Six Impact Sectors indicates that racial and ethnic minority communities are particularly vulnerable to the greatest impacts of climate change.

Brockton’s status as a Massachusetts gateway city along with its diverse socioeconomic composition signal that it will be particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The City of Brockton has begun planning to improve its long-term climate resiliency.

Stormwater Management

In the summer of 2023, the City of Brockton worked with the Woodwell Climate Research Center to publish a Climate Risk Assessment for the City of Brockton. The report details Brockton’s present and future flood risk and stormwater system vulnerabilities caused by an increase in extreme rainfall events.

In summary, the report finds that flood risk is projected to increase for the City of Brockton due to a combination of more extreme rainfall events and aging/under designed stormwater infrastructure.

Extreme Heat

Extreme heat is the most deadly of all natural disasters and its impact is not evenly distributed across people and places. People who live in historically disinvested neighborhoods, with limited access to resources and greenspace, and those struggling with additional health concerns are at greater risk when it comes to the impacts of extreme heat.

In the summer of 2023, the City of Brockton along with the towns of Abington and Avon partnered with Manomet, Wildlands Trust, CAPA Strategies, and community volunteers to develop a Heat Watch Report for all three communities. The raw data was used to generate interactive maps that show relatively hotter and cooler spaces in the three communities.

Conservation Commission

The Brockton Conservation Commission is responsible for administering and enforcing the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act for the City of Brockton. The Conservation Commission protects wetland resource areas and also regulates work done in floodplains. Maintaining natural wetlands and floodplains serves to increase flood storage capacity during high-intensity rain events and can help reduce flooding in developed areas. Click the button below to learn more about wetlands, floodplains, and the Brockton Conservation Commission:

Brockton Conservation Commission.