Climate Change Resilience

Building Community Resilience Through Planting Miyawaki Forests & Planning CoolPockets
Worcester will soon be home to four new public spaces designed to reduce the impact of extreme heat in neighborhoods that need the most relief. Our 2023 MVP action grant will assist with planting two pilot Miyawaki Forests and planning two CoolPockets in some of our most densely populated neighborhoods. These projects will advance our goal of promoting climate resilience to extreme heat, as well as many other goals related to air quality, flooding, biodiversity, community building and resilience.

Sustainable Yard Designs Initiative - Application Closed
Does your yard or basement flood? Do you want an easier way to care for your lawn? Have you ever considered Nature-Based Solutions, but don't know where to start or how much it will cost? As part of a special City initiative, we are choosing three properties for this unique opportunity to have landscape design experts craft personalized, conceptual plans to create a more sustainable and resilient yard, all at no charge. These "Sustainable Yard Designs" may feature elements such as rain gardens, re-routing roof gutters, reducing pavement, native plantings, pollinator gardens, and more.

Building Resilience to Floods, Extreme Heat and Winter Storms
We developed a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Assessment and Action Plan in 2019. Our first resiliency project, completed in 2021, was a raingarden at the Senior Center to infiltrate water and reduce the heat island effect in a heavily urbanized area. In early 2023, we completed a detailed city-wide extreme heat study that will help us target resilience solutions, such as increasing the tree canopy, where they are needed most. Now we are working on a multi-year project to develop a Drainage and Green Infrastructure Master Plan to reduce flooding and heat islands throughout the City.