For municipal-controlled infrastructure, municipalities can opt to go beyond existing codes to build long-term resilience and minimize the effects of storms and climate change on their communities. Engage municipal infrastructure managers, community stakeholders, and appropriate engineering and environmental professionals to develop low-impact and climate resilient development standards for municipal infrastructure projects including municipal buildings, roads, and water, waste, and stormwater infrastructure. This may include locating new developments and projects out of floodplains, working with natural systems and historical drainage flow ways, placing utilities underground and building structures and fixtures to higher wind loads, installing blue or green roofs, and planting climate adapted landscapes. The learning and examples created through municipal action can then be expanded to commercial and residential projects. Learn more about low-impact and climate resilient development standards:

• Credit Valley (Canada) Conservation's Low Impact Development Program
• Policy Options for Climate Resilient Infrastructure
• Coastal Stormwater Management through Green Infrastructure: A Handbook for Municipalities

Identify opportunities in the community to increase local food production. This may occur as a component to open space or master planning initiatives. Conduct an inventory of open, vacant, or re-developable spaces in the community, as well as zoning bylaws and ordinances that influence where food can be grown and produced. Identify areas with high exposure to storms or damage or contamination from storms. Conduct a community visioning and planning process to identify opportunities for increasing local food production. This may include zoning changes to allow for backyard chickens, converting vacant parcels into community gardens, or identifying parcels for urban or vertical farming businesses and co-ops. Work closely with environmental justice and other priority populations to ensure plans reduce hunger and food insecurity and increase access to health foods in alignment with the MA Local Food Action Plan.

The following resources can help guide your thinking about how to develop a local food production plan:

• USDA: The Economics of Local Food Systems - A Toolkit Guide to Community Discussions, Assessments, and Choices
• Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP): Growing a Local Food Economy - A Guide to Getting Started

Additionally, the MVP 2.0 "Advance Community Food Justice" Seed Project one-pager provides details and ideas for this action.

Create a plan for where and how to protect coastal wetland ecosystems. Ensure that the plan's priorities and guiding principles are led by people who will be most affected by the impacts, including people living adjacent to these ecosystems, especially environmental justice and other priority populations. Identify metrics for coastal wetland health. Explore Metropolitan Area Planning Council's (MAPC) guide on incorporating and/or strengthening local wetland bylaws.

The MVP 2.0 "Better Your Buffer" Seed Project one-pager contains more information regarding this action.

Resilience hubs are community serving facilities that are augmented to serve residents and coordinate resource distribution and services before, during, or after a natural hazard event. The Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) notes that they "leverage established, trusted, and community-managed facilities that are used year-round as neighborhood centers for community-building activities." See the USDN Guide to Developing Resilience Hubs, which outlines several phases including building partnerships and developing goals, identifying and evaluating sites, determining resilience solutions, and implementation and operations. Additionally, explore this report from the City of Medford regarding their MVP-funded resilience hub concept and design (case study highlighted below). 

Provide education and resources that help businesses prepare for climate change. Partner with local Chambers of Commerce, Downtown or Main Street organizations, and organizations connected to minority, women, or veteran-owned businesses (for example, Black Owned Brockton). Begin by educating businesses on local coastal flooding and other climate change projections and invite discussions on gaps in preparedness and resource needs. Identify and train one or more paid resilient business liaisons who can facilitate access to resources that close those gaps and provide education on pertinent topics like adapting work practices in hazardous conditions. Some metrics to track include number of businesses engaged, number taking advantage of grants and other resources, and those with adapted work practices. Identify opportunities to build long-term capacity to maintain resilient business liaisons.

See the MVP 2.0 "Green & Resilient Business Initiative" Seed Project one-pager for more details and ideas.

Contract with community partners who can engage all members of the community, especially environmental justice and other priority populations. Share with these communities the current and projected infrastructural vulnerabilities in the community and ask them how their lives would be affected if critical infrastructure were damaged or disrupted. Utilize information from community members to prioritize infrastructure investments or policy or design standard changes. This guide from the Natural Resources Defense Council provides an in-depth exploration of how to conduct a community climate vulnerability assessment. 

Incentivize or require developments over a certain size to incorporate "space of refuge" for climate emergencies. For example, Cambridge, MA requires certain proposed developments to incorporate plans for designated spaces that can serve as shelters during heat and storm emergencies.

Planting trees provides shade and cooling through evapotranspiration. Trees and vegetation also hold water in the event of heavy precipitation or tidal flooding. This results in less inundation, stormwater runoff, and erosion. Additionally, replacing impervious and degraded surfaces with green space and vegetation can reduce urban heat island effect, while also supporting flood mitigation. Consider ways in which your community can collaborate with city departments and community-based organizations to develop a comprehensive community tree planting program. Eligible communities can take advantage of the Greening the Gateway Cities program.

The MVP 2.0 "Convert Impervious Surface to Community Green Space" Seed Project one-pager contains details and inspiration around this action.

Create a building rehabilitation program, with a specific focus on retrofits for rental properties to increase energy efficiency, build resilience, and increase public health. Check out the city of Boston's Retrofit Resource Hub to learn more about municipal retrofit programs.

At what point in the future should the most vulnerable portions of the municipality move away from flood waters, accommodate the flooding, or protect against them? A coastal resiliency plan could identify the public costs and benefits that communities will need to consider when evaluating management options for coastal parcels. This plan may include a cost-benefit analysis to identify future conditions when costs are expected to outweigh benefits, so the communities have a basis for making key public service decisions, such as: which properties to acquire or restore as flood storage, whether to raise access roads, provide emergency services or utilities, and identify and prioritize the most at-risk sections of town. This plan will provide communities with a basis to develop a set of guiding principles and policies that will allow the community to proactively reduce vulnerabilities in these areas from an economic standpoint. This plan may also include actions related to changing zoning to rebuild in a more resilient way after a catastrophic event or designating no-build areas. This process will require a robust community outreach and engagement process. 

Explore this "Building Resilience in Coastal Communities" toolkit from Climate.gov, as well as the Plum Island and Marshfield case studies below to learn more.

Work with community members who are disproportionately affected by high heat - including environmental justice and other priority populations - to select a highly traveled route (or route with potential to be highly traveled) and identify interventions that will transform the route into a "cool transportation corridor." Implement the interventions, which may include investments such as street trees, awnings, vegetation, bus shelters, water fountains, or cool materials such as lighter colored paving. Your community may also be interested in mapping out cool transportation corridors for ease of use once these corridors are established.

Work with impacted stakeholders to help them understand their current and future risk from flooding. Provide resources to assist property owners and businesses with physical improvements to better prepare for storm and flooding events. Flood resilient design may include landscaping improvements such as permeable paving surfaces, rain gardens, bioswales, and green infrastructure. Flood resilient construction may include elevating mechanical equipment, using water resistant building materials, and sealing the building's exterior to flood waters. Provide technical and financial assistance to develop and implement said improvements. Work with the business community to market your resilient business toolkits and provide training sessions.

Explore these tool kits from the city of Cambridge to learn more about economic resilience:

• Cambridge Climate Resilience Toolkit for Large Organizations
• Cambridge Climate Resilience Toolkit for Small Businesses

Create a plan for where and how to protect forest land, restore forest ecosystems, and/or expand healthy forests, pocket forests, food forests, or street trees in your municipality. Ensure that the plan’s priorities and guiding principles are led by people who will be most affected by rising temperatures, including people living in environmental justice neighborhoods and other priority populations. Identify metrics for expanding equitable access to healthy ecosystems and tree canopy. For example, see the MVP-funded Holyoke, MA Urban Forest Equity Plan.

Explore this guide from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, which is intended to assist communities with the process of developing local tree bylaws and ordinances and provides examples and best practices. These fact sheets supplement this guide and provide accessible information regarding laws, tree protection, and tree selection for your community. 

Engage residents and design professionals to assess and prioritize opportunities to incorporate heat mitigation features for existing and new public and affordable housing. Solutions may include, for example, cool roofs, cool pavement, green roofs and walls, planting trees and urban vegetation, and incorporating shade structures and water features. Combined, these features can reduce the absorption of heat in housing, cool the surrounding air through evapotranspiration, lower energy bills and improve solar panel efficiency, if present, and support community wellbeing. Extend the impact of these initiatives by incorporating local skills training and provisions to hire local to complete the work. See C40 Cities' resource on "How to Adapt Your City to Extreme Heat."

The MVP 2.0 "Create Cool Housing" Seed Project one-pager contains more details and inspiration around this action.

Implementing nature-based stormwater improvements that can slow and store runoff can result in less downstream flooding pressure. Providing co-benefits in the form of outdoor recreational space that doubles as a "safe" place for inland floodwaters to settle can reduce the overall impact of inland flooding on developed areas. The following resources can help you start to identify dual purposes of recreational space in your community:

• EPA: Green Infrastructure in Parks: A Guide to Collaboration, Funding, and Community Engagement
• Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC): Designing Parks and Playgrounds as Green Infrastructure for Stormwater and Climate Resilience
• Medford Parks and Open Space for Climate Resilience (MVP-funded)

Help businesses build capacity to withstand and quickly recover from more frequent climate events like flooding. Engage community liaisons or other trusted members of the local business community to identify local businesses and worker needs related to flood events. Informed by community needs and resources, provide education on current and projected risk, utilize liaisons to help businesses complete emergency response plans (see guides and templates from the Small Business Administration), and link businesses and employees to available resources. Consider conducting a flooding drill or tabletop exercise to reinforce concepts and identify further planning needs.

Work with community members who work in industries that are disproportionately affected by extreme heat to develop a small business tool kit. This toolkit may include strategies on how to keep cool at work during heat waves, recognizing symptoms of heat related illness, and access to other resources that may help workers stay cool. Explore the resources below to gather ideas on what to include in your small business extreme heat toolkit:

• The National Association of Letter Carriers has a resource page on heat safety issues. This includes a comprehensive Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guide "Using the Heat Index: A Guide for Employers."
• Consider the use of technology to help workers monitor heat levels. OSHA offers an app called "OSHA-NIOSH Heat Safety Tool," which features a real-time, location-specific heat index. It also provides occupational safety tips and health recommendations for specific conditions workers may be in.
• The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) provides resources on heat safety in the workplace.
• The community-based organization A Better City has a presentation on "Engaging Businesses in Extreme Heat Solutions."

Floodplain Overlay Districts can support community resilience by setting forth certain requirements for development within areas vulnerable to flooding. Utilize coastal flood models, climate studies, and related plans to inform the geographic extent, purpose, and requirements for a Floodplain Overlay District. Draft regulatory language and invite review and comment by the public and planning board; engage an attorney to review draft language. For example, Winthrop adopted regulatory language that allows existing building in floodplains to exceed zoning height limits to elevate up to 3 feet beyond building code requirements.  Work with your planning board and Town Meeting or City Council to adopt final regulations. See the Metropolitan Area Planning Council's (MAPC) "Climate Resilient Land Use Strategies Tool Kit" for regulatory language and policy examples. 

Develop new development standards for "cool roofs" (roofs that meet specified solar reflectance standards). Higher solar reflectance means that the material absorbs less heat from the sun, therefore helping to keep temperatures cooler. See how Cambridge, MA is working to incorporate a "Cool Score" into its climate resilience zoning.

Communities can also consider creating a "cool roof" program and pairing the program with green jobs training for installation to create employment opportunities in your municipality. In certain municipalities, an incentive program for property owners to upgrade to cool roofs may also work. Your community may also want to consider "green" or "living roofs," which incorporate plants and gardens on rooftops, and provide an abundance of climate resilience benefits.

Identify areas at high risk of flooding, especially areas with higher concentrations of people who rent, low-income residents, or environmental justice neighborhoods. Engage community members and design professionals in a community-led process to identify opportunities for neighborhood-scale flood resilience planning. Encourage a focus on nature-based solutions and achieving co-benefits identifies as important to the community, such as adding recreational amenities, supporting biodiversity, or mitigating urban heat. Depending on the type of action identified by the community, advance through design and permitting. If the project implementation lends itself to volunteer participation, organize a community event for resident to participate in a clean up, planting, or similar activity at the project site. Explore the following resources to learn more about neighborhood-scale flood resiliency planning:

• NYC Planning: Resilient Neighborhoods - New York City has launched an initiative to identify and map neighborhood-specific resilience strategies.
• Urban Land Institute: Enhancing Resilience through Neighborhood-Scale Strategies
• Journal of Flood Risk Management: Exploring Neighborhood-level Resilience to Flooding - Why the Context and Scale Matter

Strategically acquire new open space parcels and/or protect existing open space based on the ability of the sites to support community and climate resilience - including heat and flood mitigation, stormwater infiltration and drought prevention, ecological integrity and connectivity, and improving access to open space for communities that will are disproportionately affected by high heat and other climate impacts, such as environmental justice and other priority populations. Work with these groups to identify needs, goals, and priorities for acquiring, protecting, and increasing access to open space.

MassAudubon has designed a scoring system to help communities identify which land parcels need to be prioritized for protection for climate resilience. Explore their Mapping and Prioritizing Parcels for Resilience Project to identify potential sites for strategic land protection in your community. The town of Berlin utilized this tool to identify Horseshoe Pond as a priority for acquisition for climate resilience (MVP FY23 Action Grant). Benefits of this acquisition include protected open space for heat mitigation and recreational access.

See the MVP 2.0 "Resilient Land Acquisition" Seed Project one-pager for more details and ideas.

Protect and restore riparian areas so that adjacent trees provide shade to rivers and streams, keep water temperatures cooler, and the species that live in rivers and streams can continue to thrive in the cool temperatures they are accustomed to. Some ideas to protect these areas include:

• Reduce mowing in areas adjacent to riparian areas to allow them to return to forest
• Plant appropriate, native, and resilient trees along open banks

This guide from the National Association of Wetland Managers provides additional insight into actions that can be taken at the local level to protect and restore these areas.

As communities across the state face an increase in temperatures, many will be seeking places to cool down at various rivers, forests, lakes, and beaches. This will likely lead to an increase in visitation at some spots that may have of been "off the beaten path" previously. This increase in visitation can lead to challenges for both the visitors and the hosting communities as everyone becomes accustomed to sharing new spaces. Communities who host and maintain these natural resources can plan for this influx of usage so that all involved have a safe and welcoming experience. Consider conducting a diversity, equity, and inclusion workshop series for all town staff, particularly those who will be interacting with visitors, so that everyone can learn how to create safe environments for all types of people. Develop robust communication strategies, both online and on site, that describe these places, what to expect, and how to inform folks of any closures. Consider developing a map that lists all of the places in your community that can be used to cool down during extreme heat. Are any of these locations accessible by public transportation? Do the parking areas have space for more cars? Is there a plan for overflow parking? What additional languages could be used so that all have access to the necessary information?

Municipal requests for proposals (RFPs) may require more resilient materials and designs that mitigate against the adverse impacts of extreme heat on infrastructure, such as roadways. Consider implementing design guideline requirements from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development's Bureau of Housing Design and Construction (DHCD/BHCD) into your community's upcoming municipal capital projects.

Launch a participatory mapping process to collectively map public areas in your town or city where community members go to cool off. These areas may include nature preserves, parks and open spaces, public pools and bodies of water, fountains and splash pads, public air-conditioned buildings, and designated cooling shelters. Collectively identify gaps (areas with very few cooling sites) and access barriers, which may relate to cost, transportation, accessibility for varying abilities, hours of operation, or cultural or language barriers. Work with community stakeholders to expand access to cooling sites based on community needs and priorities, prioritizing the needs of people who are disproportionately affected by high heat. 

Cool roofs, green roofs, cool pavement, and urban forestry are among the options available to municipalities to mitigate heat, not only for housing, but throughout an entire community. Explore and implement policy tools available to support adoption of these heat mitigation strategies. "Adaptation to Urban Heat: A Tool Kit for Local Governments" provides decision-making support for assessing different policy tools, including government operations, mandates (e.g. building codes and standards), incentives (e.g. grant and rebate programs), and public education programs.

Being a more resilient community involves transitioning information from the individual process participants and formalizing it into how your municipality functions. Climate change touches every area of our lives, both directly and indirectly. Determining the ways each municipality can incorporate social resiliency into how it conducts everyday business, which includes having robust community engagement become the norm, will not only build a more adaptable community, but will broaden the pool of who is participating in municipal government. Consider the following actions to create more resilient communities:

• Develop an equity-centering checklist to be used by different town boards and committees in their decision-making process
• Institutionalize the core team as a new town committee
• Institutionalize new municipal wide community engagement best practices

Building social connectedness and resilience can help people withstand disasters and other climate change events (see Building Social Resilience for Public Health). Work with community-based organizations, community health workers, and others representing environmental justice and priority populations to understand how climate change is impacting the communities they work with, as well as what is needed to strengthen social connectedness and resilience. Work with these communities to develop an action plan for meeting the identified needs. Explore these resources to learn more about fostering social resilience:

• Resilient Together: A partnership between Beverly and Salem, MA to collaboratively address climate impacts in their communities
• Oregon Health Authority's Climate Change and Social Resilience Report
• Mutual Aid and Disaster Justice: We Keep Us Safe

Compile a list of publicly available cooling centers, pools, and recreational bodies of water in or near your community that residents can visit to cool off during heat waves. Gather information from relevant state agencies, local DPW departments, and residents with knowledge of these spaces in the area. Make this resource available to the public, so that they can easily identify cooling sites during heat waves. Furthermore, you may consider mapping this data, such as through the use of ArcGIS' interactive Warming and Cooling Center mapper, which features a dynamic crowdsourcing reporter app that allows community members to identify locations of warming and cooling centers. Explore the following resources to learn more about community cooling resources:

• Mass.gov: Extreme Heat Safety Tips
• Mass.gov: Parks & Recreation - Swimming

Year-round water conservation programs can help lessen drought impacts on communities. Community level water conservation programs should address local water system efficiency, water rates, indoor and outdoor water use, and engage community-appropriate communication and outreach. Explore the following resources from Mass.gov to learn more about implementing a water conservation program in your community:

• Massachusetts Drought Management Plan
• Drought Tips, Tools, & Resources
• Massachusetts Water Conservation Toolkit
• Information for Private Well Owners During a Drought

Supporting practices that build soil organic matter and enable the development of a healthy soil structure is critical. For every 1 percent increase in soil organic matter, soil can hold as much as 20,000 gallons more water per acre. This increased water holding capacity means that groundwater recharge can be bolstered, system runoff can be reduced, and the export of sediment and pollutants to waterways can be prevented (Massachusetts Healthy Soils Action Plan, 2023, p. 21). Best management practices (BMPs) for growing soil organic carbon stocks often do have multiple benefits including protecting water quality, improving resilience to both drought and heavy rain events, and protecting critical ecosystem services (Apple Country Natural Climate Solutions, Appendix 7: Soil Health and Resilience). Assess soil health in your community and identify locations where there is good value and feasibility to improve soil organic carbon. Engage large landowners, farmers, and other community representatives to implement best management practices for a variety of stakeholders and scales including municipally managed land, agricultural land, large commercial or institutional spaces, and residential land.

Partnering with regional farmers, businesses, and organizations increases collaboration and enhances capacity for projects, funding, grant opportunities, and leadership. For example, a community newsletter or a classroom program for school-age children could further education regarding the local agriculture community, the impacts of climate change, and the benefits of a strong regional food system.

Additionally, partnering with regional farmers, businesses, and organizations increases the number of resources available to all partners. For example, the University of Massachusetts has a dedicated agriculture extension program that provides research-based resources for the Commonwealth. UMass Extension (also referred to as the Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment) has field offices around the state. Partnerships between communities, regional farmers, and the Extension can lead to the awareness and implementation of best practices for the region's specific farm types, soil types, and other important considerations.

Create a dedicated funding mechanism to pay for a community's stormwater management and flood resilience activities. Assess a user fee based upon how much stormwater runoff a property generates. Use the revenue generated from the fee to support stormwater-related services and improvements, and flood resilience and planning efforts. These include replacing aging infrastructure, maintaining existing systems, stormwater quality enhancement projects, projects that reduce flood risk to private and public infrastructure, and complying with regulatory requirements. Encourage property owners and developers to implement stormwater controls on their property to reduce the fee assessed. See the Metropolitan Area Planning Council's (MAPC) "Stormwater Financing/Utility Starter Kit" and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission's guide on "Understanding Stormwater Utilities."

Pocket parks, pocket forests, tree planting programs, and green corridors are among the nature-based solutions available to provide neighborhood-level heat island mitigation. Use available mapping tools or conduct your own heat measurements and mapping overlaid with Priority Populations/Social Vulnerability map layers to identify high priority areas in need of heat mitigation. Engage community members, designers, and ecologists to identify community priorities and identify nature-based solutions that meet these needs. Collaboratively select sites for implementation. Conduct design, permitting, implementation, and monitoring. Explore the following resources to learn more about using nature-based solutions to reduce heat islands in your community:

• MVP: Nature-based Solutions (NBS) Toolkit
• EPA: Reduce Urban Heat Island Effect

Establish a zoning ordinance with resilient design standards and guidelines to encourage more flood resilient residential development. Review example design guidelines and programs such as Building a Better Norfolk (VA) Zoning Ordinance, Building Flood Resiliency in Boston, and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council's (MAPC) Climate Resilient Land Use Strategies Toolkit. Engage resiliency and/or engineering expertise to develop design standards and guidelines considering local climate projections and thresholds. Identify opportunities to provide incentives for residential projects in areas with low flood risk that include affordable housing.

Allowing communities to produce, process, and sell food locally supports the local economy and provides some protection from global food supply chain shocks. Assemble a team of interested stakeholders (e.g. municipal planning, health, and economic development staff, community members interested in gardening, homeowners' associations, and small food businesses). Develop an inventory of regulations and rules that influence where food can be grown, how food is prepared and processed, and who and where food can be sold. This may include zoning and homeowner association rules that govern where food can be grown/produced, requirements for use of commercial kitchens or licenses to prepare and sell foods, and regulations relating to food sales (online, food trucks, stalls, pop-ups, or corner stores). These regulations may exist at both the state and local level, depending on where you live. Identify who develops and enforces those regulations and rules and use the stakeholder team and their networks to rank these regulations and rules in terms of impact and feasibility to amend. Engage appropriate authorities to remove or revise regulations as needed.

Work with community members who will be disproportionately impacted by high heat, including residents of environmental justice neighborhoods and other priority populations, to identify an open site in the community that could most benefit from a pocket forest. A pocket forest is a tiny forest that can provide a range of ecosystem services (cleaner air and water, cooler temperatures, edible fruits) to the neighborhood. Work with residents in the neighborhood, community-based organizations, local businesses, or other community partners to design and construct the pocket forest.

When planning a pocket forest for your community, consider the following:

• Site placement: Are there any areas or neighborhoods in your community that are lacking in biodiversity and green space? Consider nursing homes, schools, community spaces, and other areas where environmental justice or other priority populations may frequent.
• Soil Type & Preparation: What type of soil does the site for your pocket forest contain? Does it allow water to drain easily or is it clay-like, which can impede drainage? This may help you determine the types of native plants that will thrive at this site.
• Co-Benefits: Besides mitigating the impacts of high heat, are there other benefits that your pocket forest can provide to your community? For example, are there native or climate-adapted species to plant at your site that may also attract pollinators?

Ayer and Devens have an MVP Action Grant to create a pocket forest. Learn more here.

Learning about climate-adapted species that will be able to thrive in a hotter overall environment and promoting their use in community projects and on private property will help maintain the important ecosystem services of trees and other plants into the future. Adopt species specifications as part of municipal planting protocols and/or development standards. 

Engage community liaisons to design a multi-pronged education campaign to help people understand their current and future risk from inland flooding. The MA Department of Public Health provides information on the health risks of inland flooding. Provide education and connections to technical and financial assistance for making individual homes more resilient, such as with rain gardens, rain barrels, reduction of impervious surfaces, and elevating equipment from lower levels. Implement municipal incentives for making flood resilience improvements similar to programs incentivizing energy efficiency. Explore Cambridge's Renter Resilient Toolkit to learn more about promoting household flood resilience. 

Promote the use of green infrastructure to become more resilient and bolster capacity to manage stormwater. Engage community members, businesses and downtown associations, and design professionals in a community-led process to identify opportunities for neighborhood-scale flood resilience planning. Implement these elements at various scales – site, neighborhood, and watershed or landscape scale. Include a rain barrel program for residents, plant trees along a street, or green an alleyway. Install green infrastructure elements in neighborhood parks. Promote the use of permeable pavers. Identify opportunities for pavement reduction initiatives. Daylight streams and protect large open natural spaces and riparian areas. Evaluate and improve floodplain management regulations, policies, and methods. Explore the following resources to learn more about how to implement green infrastructure for stormwater management in your community:

• Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC): A Vision for Green Infrastructure in the Region
• Pioneer Valley Planning Commission: Green Infrastructure Plan
• Green Infrastructure in the City of Boston
• Boston Water and Sewer Commission: Green Infrastructure and Low Impact Development
• Municipal implementation strategies:
• Milford, MA: Stormwater Management Operation and Maintenance Guide
• Watertown, MA: Green Infrastructure Strategy

Strategic land protection enables habitats to thrive with safe buffers. Large blocks of undeveloped land are more likely to retain ecological integrity despite climate impacts and provide proportionally more ecosystem services than many tiny, fragmented habitats. MassAudubon has designed a scoring system to help communities identify which land parcels need to be prioritized for protection and climate resilience. Explore their Mapping and Prioritizing Parcels for Resilience Project to identify potential sites for strategic land protection in your community. 

Living shorelines, and wetland and dune restoration and protection are examples of nature-based solutions that can be employed to protect critical infrastructure from coastal flooding. Identify priorities for infrastructure improvements and resilience through community engagement processes and past planning studies. Commission a design and feasibility assessment to identify nature-based solutions and alternatives, permitting requirements, estimate cost, and establish a timeline. Subsequent actions will involve implementing the preferred alternative.

• Living shorelines are shorelines that are protected using natural materials, such as plants, sand, and rock. The NOAA Office for Coastal Management offers insight into designing living shorelines for New England coasts. Additionally, you can explore these examples of implementing living shorelines in Salem, MA and Kingston, MA.
• Dunes are important for providing physical buffers between the ocean and inland areas, and can aid in protecting homes, infrastructure, and communities from coastal flooding. Explore the strategy guides below to learn more about how to protect and restore dunes in your community:
• Massachusetts Wildlife Climate Action Tool: Restore Natural Coastal Buffers - Beach and Dune Nourishment and Restoration
• Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management: CZ-Tip - Dune Building with Beachgrass

Intact natural ecosystems are essential for clean water. They reduce sediment and nutrient inputs into source water bodies, regulate runoff and streamflow, and buffer against flooding. Utilities work with regional floodplain managers and appropriate stakeholders to explore non-structural flood management techniques in their watersheds (EPA, 2022). One way to preserve intact ecosystems is to establish source water protection via acquiring and managing ecosystems in buffer zones along rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and coasts. Hazardous materials enter water sources from polluted ecosystems and storm water drains. Hazardous materials that enter water bodies include motor oil, fertilizers, pesticides, paint, cleaners, and medicines.

• Preservation programs can include signage, education, events, and clean-ups focused on responsible disposal of hazardous compounds around natural ecosystems and storms drains (EPA, 2022). Efforts could result from partnerships with local community organizations, watershed organizations, and waterkeepers.
• This report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service addresses best management practices on developing water quality criteria, such as establishing metrics to track progress and water quality.

Develop a resilient power plan by identifying critical facilities (or clusters of facilities) in your community that could most benefit from backup power. Prioritize locations based on their ability to safeguard health and safety, and on their potential to protect or benefit residents who may be most significantly impacted by climate change - including environmental justice and other priority populations. Commission an engineering assessment to identify clean energy technology options, needed facilities upgrades (i.e. elevating electrical panel out of flood-prone basement), ownership models, and financing structures to meet those needs.

Explore the "Energy" section (pg. 33) of Gloucester's MVP-funded 2022 Climate and Action Resilience Plan to learn more about developing resilient clean power plans. Additionally, the MVP 2.0 "Pursuing Resilient & Equitable Power" Seed Project one-pager contains more details and ideas around this action.

Remove obsolete dams, enlarge culverts, or restore tidally-driven rivers, estuarine, and marinehabitats, so that animals face less disturbances and barriers in their movement patterns and can better migrate and adapt to changing environmental conditions, including higher temperatures. Integrate opportunities for job training, career development, and/or youth engagement. For example, see the MVP-funded “Housatonic Stream Restoration for Regional Flood Resilience Project” in the City of Pittsfield and the Towns of Lenox, Stockbridge, and New Marlborough.

Encourage new development and redevelopment to incorporate green space and natural systems in ways that mitigate heat. These standards could be implemented, for example, through a points-based system whereby developers accrue points based on the integration of natural systems (e.g. plantings, trees, green roofs, green walls, etc.), and where features that have a greater capacity to mitigate heat would receive greater points. See how Somerville, MA is working to incorporate a "Green Score" into their updated zoning ordinances.

Start an informational campaign to promote energy efficient electric heating and cooling systems. Incentivize residents to take advantage of relevant programs through an outreach program with information in multiple languages, accessible to diverse audiences, and tailored to communities historically underrepresented in energy efficiency programs. Explore Worcester's Green Energy municipal initiative for ideas.

People's culture, language, and other factors can influence the way they respond to crises and their attitudes toward receiving mental health support. As climate emergencies increase in frequency and severity, so too will mental health stressors (MCCA, 2022, Volume II Appendix A, p. A9). Therefore, the need for mental health services is projected to increase, and these services will need to be culturally and linguistically appropriate to truly meet community needs. Engage a disaster behavioral health and/or other community facilitator to design an education and planning initiative that works for your local community (e.g. representatives from community-based organizations, cultural groups, and faith leaders), health facilities and providers (e.g. mental health and community health centers, home health, hospitals, and traditional medicine practitioners). Activities may include:

• Knowledge sharing to support a shared understanding of future climate impacts, expand capacity to deliver psychological first aid, and strategies for culturally relevant mental health services in the community.
• A mental health vulnerability assessment that identifies sources of mental health services, including providers of social resilience such as community and faith-based organizations, their physical vulnerabilities, as well as collective gaps in the ability to meet projected needs.
• Action planning to address vulnerabilities and gaps, as well as determine a long-term home to continue this work such as within a resilience hub, mutual aid network, or other community network.

Being a more resilient community may involve changing how your municipality functions. Climate change touches every area of our lives, both directly and indirectly. Determining the ways each municipality can incorporate social resiliency into how it conducts everyday business, which includes having robust community engagement become the norm, will not only build a more adaptable community, but will broaden the pool of who is participating in municipal government. Consider the “Sustaining a Focus on Resilient Relationships” Seed Project one-pager for specific actions that advance this aim, including 1) Developing an equity-centering checklist to be used by different town boards and committees in their decision-making processes 2) Institutionalizing the MVP 2.0 Core Team as a new town committee and 3) Institutionalizing new municipal wide community engagement best practices.

Establishing a district energy system or expanded on-site renewable energy and storage system can reduce the overall demand on the local power grid, which may ultimately reduce service disruptions. It can also make these facilities more resilient overall.

Explore more ways to increase resilience to energy distribution disruptions with the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions' guide to power outages, which can be found here.

Additionally, encourage residents and business owners to take advantage of peak reduction programs. MassSave's "ConnectedSolutions" program partners with Massachusetts power suppliers and provides incentives for reduced power use during peak demand to eligible participants.