Who is most vulnerable to extreme heat in Boston? This is the question driving the B-COOL heat temperature sensor pilot project.
Piloted in the summer of 2024, B-COOL monitored how summer temperatures vary between neighborhoods in the City of Boston. Some are hotter than others. Real-time monitoring of temperature readings in these hotspot communities could transform the way heat emergencies are declared in Boston — enabling a more equitable approach to providing heat relief and cooling resources to those who need them most — when they need them most.
Research Approach and Goals
B-COOL aspires to fill gaps in neighborhood-specific temperature data, supporting a more informed response to extreme heat events. During the pilot, an interdisciplinary team of BU researchers collected and analyzed data from 15 sensors placed in hotspots across the City — including locations in Chinatown, Dorchester, East Boston, Mattapan, Roxbury, Allston-Brighton and Jamaica Plain. The project’s immediate goal is to demonstrate how much hotter heat islands can be compared to Logan Airport, where the National Weather Service determines Boston’s official temperature. Longer-term, B-COOL aims to establish a permanent temperature sensor network and public dashboard.
The project is a partnership between the BU School of Public Health, the City of Boston’s Environment Department, A Better City, and The Boston Foundation. Leading the BU team is Patricia Fabian, an Associate Professor of Environmental Health at BU’s School of Public Health, through her Sustainable Built Environment Lab.
Fabian’s research ambition is to make health and heat resilience in communities a key focus of sustainable energy transitions through B-COOL and other community-engaged projects on extreme weather health impacts.
Key Takeaways from Pilot Study
In analyzing heat events during the summer of 2024, sensor data during heat advisory and heat emergency declarations reflected the City of Boston’s 2022 Heat Plan findings that heat island hotspot neighborhoods have exposure to higher temperatures and heat index during heat events compared to the National Weather Service station data, as well as longer duration of exposure to extreme heat. As the Heat Plan and B-COOL sensors found, the hottest neighborhoods include Chinatown, Dorchester, East Boston, Mattapan, and Roxbury, with additional high heat exposure in Allston-Brighton and parts of Jamaica Plain as demonstrated by B-COOL sensors.
On hot days, temperatures in hot spot neighborhoods can be significantly higher than the National Weather Service (NWS) Station, with heat advisory and emergency thresholds being met in hotspot neighborhoods but not at the NWS station, and with heat advisories and emergencies starting before and extending past NWS-based declarations of heat advisory or emergency for Boston.
Within-neighborhood temperatures can vary significantly, with heat advisory/emergency thresholds being met in some local areas and not others, suggesting that some sub-neighborhoods of hotspot communities are at even higher risk from heat exposure.
Where sensors are located to measure temperature is important for planning and emergency response.
Temperature sensors can be a powerful engagement tool for framing emergency preparedness and response across hotspot neighborhoods, as well as for local businesses, community-based organizations, and institutions to learn more about how to protect the residents, workers, and community members that they serve during heat events.
Where people live, commute, work, and play can impact their heat vulnerability, both in terms of the intensity of high heat temperatures that they might experience as well as in the duration of heat exposure in their neighborhoods.
Proximity to cooling features also impacts vulnerable neighborhoods’ adaptability to heat, as reflected in Boston’s Heat Plan. B-COOL sensor data affirms that proximity to cooling features like coastal breezes, urban forestry and other green infrastructure, can impact residents’ and workers’ heat vulnerability.
B-COOL sensor data affirms what was clarified in Boston’s Heat Plan: extreme heat is a racial justice and climate justice issue, with our environmental justice neighborhoods and communities of color experiencing higher heat and longer duration of extreme heat during heat events in Boston than surrounding neighborhoods, and when compared to the NWS data. Solutions for heat resilience must embed equity and community-based action to support neighborhood heat resilience and adaptability, and neighborhood-specific temperature data could be a helpful tool to inform response and preparedness.
Heat Waves Are Scorching Boston, but Are Some Neighborhoods Hotter than Others?
Pictured (from left to right): Zoë Davis, City of Boston; Isabella Gambill, A Better City; Jonathan Lee, PhD student, School of Public Health; Ben Hires, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center; Ameera Saba, BU undergraduate, College of Engineering; Julia Howard, The Boston Foundation; and Patricia Fabian, Associate Professor, Environmental Health, School of Public Health.
“Heat is increasing in intensity and frequency across the globe due to climate change, and every day, more connections are made between extreme heat and adverse health, including mental health.”
