Kleinfelder has been the City of Cambridge’s prime consultant for climate resiliency services since 2010. Kleinfelder is helping the City plan and implement projects, policies, programs, and partnerships to mitigate the impacts of extreme heat, extreme rainfall, sea level rise, and storm surge on people, infrastructure, environment, and economy.

Decision-Support and Communication Tools

Kleinfelder created climate hazard models to inform vulnerability assessments, resiliency planning, and implementation. The integrated flood model accounts for the interactions of drainage systems, rivers, dams, and the ocean, providing a comprehensive picture of flood risks from extreme rainfall, sea level rise, and storm surge. The urban heat risk model accounts for heat index, land use, and other social, infrastructural, and environmental vulnerability factors. To communicate flood risks and the resiliency benefits to stakeholders, Kleinfelder created GIS, virtual reality, and other outreach tools such as the Flood Viewer portal which provides open access to integrated flood maps, parcel-level flood data, and best practices. City staff, residents, businesses, non-profits, and developers are already using it to make informed decisions.

Communicating Impacts and Benefits

Kleinfelder identified green, blue, white, and gray infrastructure interventions and estimated their cumulative benefits for mitigating heat, flooding, and pollution. Using these findings, Kleinfelder is helping the City design high-performance capital improvements, zoning changes, an Urban Forest Master Plan, and neighborhood pilot programs, among other applications.

Project Results

To strengthen the City’s resiliency to climate impacts, Kleinfelder is leading several ongoing initiatives including stakeholder engagement, social resilience programs, stormwater management, infrastructure hardening, streetscape enhancements, urban forest management, public facilities improvements, private development regulation, and regional collaboration to strengthen dam infrastructure and watershed-scale flood mitigation.

Project Details

Location:
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Owner:
City of Cambridge