Reducing Urban Heat Island Effects While Providing Affordable Housing in Bunker Hill

 By Tara K. Miller

As part of the National Science Policy Network’s annual Policy Memo Writing Competition, four colleagues and I published for a policy memo discussing how to balance the needs of affordable public housing and heat mitigation in the Bunker Hill neighborhood of Boston, MA.

The Bunker Hill Public Housing development is home to a people of mostly racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, and the housing requires major re-development and repair to enhance the safety of its residents. We support the need for re-development to ensure that residents have safe, healthy, and affordable housing.

Bunker Hill Public Housing in Boston, MA.
Photo by bostonglobe.com

However, the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA)’s plan for re-development included removing and replacing about 250 mature trees around the public housing units. Removal of these trees would diminish the cooling available to a population which is already significantly more exposed to the effects of heat events. These effects include heat-related stress, morbidity, and mortality, which will worsen with climate change in the coming years. This area already experiences 20% less cooling due to a lack of vegetation than the average for Boston.

 

To compensate for tree removal, we proposed installing green roofs on the buildings. A green roof consists of vegetation, sometimes a garden, planted over of a waterproof layer. These green roofs would provide cooling and beneficial community services, such as air quality improvement, noise pollution reduction, community spaces, and locally grown food from community gardens. The installation of green roofs will take only 0.25% of the entire re-development project budget and will have a large return in community wellness.

 

 

Atherton, K.F., Dambal, V., Miller, T.K., Smith, I., and Wright, J. [all authors contributed equally]. 2021. Reducing Urban Heat Island effects while providing affordable housing in Bunker Hill. Journal of Science Policy & Governance 18(4). https://doi.org/10.38126/JSPG180404.