Building Resilience in Boston: An Analysis of City Plans

This report highlights findings from a joint research project between Arizona State University and Texas A University funded by the National Science Foundation. The central goal of the Resilience Planning Networks project is to assess the degree of coordination of government agencies and stakeholders engaged in resilience planning and to examine the influence of coordination on the integration of flood mitigation across multiple plans. By combining surveys, social network analysis, and the latest techniques in plan evaluation, this study provides critical and timely information about the government structures and planning processes to address long-term risk of coastal flooding. The study focuses on four different coastal U.S. cities: Boston, Massachusetts; Baltimore, Maryland; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Seattle, Washington. This report presents key findings from the plan analysis component of the research project for Boston. This includes a plan quality evaluation for Boston’s network of plans, a scorecard of policies listed in the plans that would impact physical vulnerability to flooding, and an analysis of how the city’s network of plans is connected. The results reflect the content of existing city plans, and do not capture all ongoing resilience planning efforts in the cities.