The land that Boston University sits on is man-made. One-sixth of the land in Boston was built on land that was once underwater. Places such as the Seaport District, East Boston, and parts of the Downtown Waterfront are all built on filled land. On the positive side, creating more land has many benefits: harbor improvements, burying wastewater pollution, safeguarding public health, and creating more public parks and other structures. Nevertheless, this practice makes Boston more vulnerable to climate change.
A lesser-known fact is that Boston is experiencing subsidence — gradual lowering — because there used to be a large ice sheet over New England. As UMass Lowell professor and hydrogeologist James Heiss explains:
[The Laurentide] Ice Sheet had a tremendous amount of weight to it — so much weight that it pushed down on the crust of the Earth… without that ice sheet in place because all that ice has melted, those parts along the periphery of where that ice sheet once was, are now sinking.
In other words, the land surface surrounding the ice sheet rose, and when the ice sheet melted, this left a change in the depth of the Earth’s crust. As the land surface subsides, the effects of flooding, storm surges, and sea level rise accelerate due to climate change.
The implications of flooding are already being felt. Heiss shares that “in Boston, we currently experience, on average, about 15 king tide flooding events per year. Because of sea level rise — and subsidence is contributing about 15 percent to that — we can expect about 50 king tide flooding events per year by the year 2050.” King tide is a term to describe predictable exceptionally high tides that can cause local tidal flooding. WBUR adds that Boston felt 19 king tides in 2023 and should expect to see 12 to 19 more this year in 2025. Effects of these floods include decreased public transportation efficiency, changing traffic patterns, and building closures. In a study investigating flooding in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, researchers discovered many ways in which flooding hindered urban transportation efficiency. For example, floods cause travel time delays through the need to re-route vehicles and public transport. Furthermore, floods hinder the ability of people to commute to work, decreasing labor efficiency. Even more, there is a correlation between the area where there is the highest travel delay and the poorest commuters, underscoring the uneven distribution of equity where flooding affects people. Ultimately, all of these factors lead to a disrupted efficiency in transportation for the city affected by flooding.
What can the City of Boston do to best tackle this problem? One solution the City of Boston is proposing to tackle sea level rise is to build coastal resilience. The City of Boston defines coastal resilience as “the ability of a community to adapt and respond to the chronic stresses and acute shocks resulting from climate change, specifically sea level rise and coastal storms.” In other words, resilience is a city’s ability to recover from a natural event that impacts its community and coastal specifically refers to the shoreline.
Strategies that the City of Boston ideated in its coastal resilience plan include waterfront land elevation. An example of this is raising the waterfront pathways such as the Boston Harborwalk. This increased elevation can prevent a higher level of seawater from flowing onto land. Similarly, the City of Boston also included raised berms in their plan. These are mounds of earthen material that slope up and down on both sides. Locations where berms can be implemented include waterfront parks, beaches, and more. When the top of berms are wide enough, they can allow for public access which creates space for people to gather. Furthermore, the City of Boston included nature-based solutions in its plan. Restoring salt marshes and installing living shorelines are just a few examples of these solutions. Next, building adaptations include elevating the structure, filling in basements, wet or dry flood-proofing, and using deployable perimeter or entrance flood barriers.
How can residents prepare for this emergency? As government officials are working on short and long-term initiatives to mitigate the effects of emergency climate situations, Chief of Emergency Preparedness, Adrian Jordan, recommends the general public stay informed, engaged, and prepared to tackle the climate crisis. He suggests that residents sign up for AlertBoston, a system made by the City of Boston to notify residents about emergency events using eleven of Boston’s most spoken languages. Furthermore, Jordan suggests that residents join the City of Boston’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). This group of trained volunteers assists the City of Boston in an emergency or large-scale event. Getting involved with this program is a great way for Boston residents to support the city’s emergency response efforts. In order to become a CERT member, the applicant must be 18, go through a training program, and pass a background check. Most importantly, Jordan recommends that residents create an emergency plan for themselves and their families. Ready.gov, a national public service campaign designed to help the public respond and mitigate emergencies, provides advice on creating an emergency plan.
Ready.gov advises residents to go through four steps to create an emergency plan. Firstly, discuss important questions with family members. These include how they will receive emergency alerts and warnings, what their shelter plans are, and what their evacuation routes are. Secondly, tailor the plan to suit specific needs in the household, such as dietary restrictions, such as dietary restrictions, presence of pets, and the safety of those with disabilities. Delegating different responsibilities by age can help decrease confusion around tasks. Thirdly, write down the answers to the previous questions. Ready.gov provides an accessible and free online form that the government does not collect, which residents can fill in and download as a PDF once they are finished. Lastly, ensure that family members practice carrying out the plan. Similar to how schools have fire drills to increase the chances that students will know how to evacuate safely if there were a fire, by practicing evacuation drills, residents can increase their confidence and likelihood of evacuating safely in an emergency.
Ultimately, it is undeniable that climate change is present and will not disappear anytime soon. Flooding chances are likely to only increase from here, so everyone must follow steps that Chief of Emergency Preparedness Adrian Jordan suggested to mitigate the effects of emergencies, including signing up for AlertBoston, joining CERT, and most importantly creating a family emergency plan.
Sources:
City of Boston. (2024). Coastal Resilience Planning. Boston.gov. https://www.boston.gov/departments/climate-resilience/coastal-resilience-planning
City of Boston. (2025). Mayor Wu Shares Boston’s Preparations for Climate Emergencies. Boston.gov. https://www.boston.gov/news/mayor-wu-shares-bostons-preparations-climate-emergencies
Climate Ready Estuaries. (2011). King Tides. https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2014-04/documents/king_tides_factsheet.pdf
He, Y., Thies, S., Avner, P., & Rentschler, J. (2025). Open Knowledge Repository. Worldbank.org. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/3b387b7f-9536-5220-b4b9-f74e27ad7cbe
Mason, B. (2017). How Boston Made Itself Bigger. Culture. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/Boston-landfill-maps-history
Moran, B. (2024). Boston should expect 12 to 19 days of high-tide flooding next year, per NOAA | WBUR News. Wbur.org; WBUR. https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/08/08/boston-tidal-flooding-noaa-forecast
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2021). What is a King Tide? Oceanservice.noaa.gov. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/kingtide.htmlRuhalter, K., & Rath, A. (2024). Boston is slowly sinking. That doesn’t help sea level rise due to climate change. GBH. https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2024-12-09/boston-is-slowly-sinking-that-doesnt-help-sea-level-rise-due-to-climate-change