EcoWisdom for Climate Justice Planning: Social-Ecological Vulnerability Assessment in Boston’s Charles River Watershed

Abstract

Climate change has exacerbated socioeconomic and environmental stresses in places where social and ecological vulnerability persist. With a growing population projected to occur in the Boston metropolitan area, more socially vulnerable groups are likely to bear the burdens from climate change-induced hazards. Understanding the interlinked relationship between social and ecological vulnerability is critical to understand the resilience of social-ecological systems in communities. This paper aims to provide a social-ecological assessment framework that serves as a resilience planning tool to inform growth management and incorporate EcoWisdom for climate justice planning. This study employed a Social-Ecological Vulnerability Matrix to examine climate justice hotspots where social vulnerability intersects with ecological vulnerability of a place in the Charles River Watershed. Four climate change scenarios derived from a climate sensitivity study were investigated. The results provided implications for four planning strategies corresponding to the four quadrates of the matrix. This paper demonstrated a planning tool to inform policies for enhancing resilience under a range of climate change impacts and to integrate equity planning for local climate justice.