The Stone Living Lab: Boston Harbor as a Case Study for Adapting to Climate Change
The Stone Living Lab is a broad partnership that conducts transformative research, impactful education, and innovative outreach to help promote the adoption of nature-based approaches for climate adaptation in a coastal city. Located in Boston Harbor, an urban estuarine ecosystem whose watershed is home to nearly 2 million residents, the Stone Living Lab facilitates research and education activities to address the needs of a variety of stakeholders by co-developing projects with community, city, state, federal, and tribal partners, iteratively adapting to internal and external opportunities and challenges, and strategically moving towards an evolving shared vision of the entire Boston Harbor system over 5, 30, and 200 year timescales. Explicitly assessing co-benefits, challenging significant barriers such as costs and permitting processes, and seamlessly integrating research and outreach goals and activities are signature traits of the Lab’s strategy. This presentation will focus on the adaptive nature of the Lab as well as some specific examples research projects and strategies to share our research findings and nature-based approaches with a diverse set of stakeholders.
Presentation Preference: Oral
Primary Presenter: Robert Chen, University of Massachusetts - Boston (bob.chen@umb.edu)
Authors:
Mark Borrelli, UMass Boston (Mark.Borrelli@umb.edu)
Kirk Bosma, Woods Hole Group (kbosma@woodsholegroup.com)
Jarrett Byrnes, UMass Boston (Jarrett.Byrnes@umb.edu)
Paul Kirshen, UMass Boston (Paul.Kirshen@umb.edu)
Francesco Peri, UMass Boston (Francesco.Peri@umb.edu)
The Stone Living Lab: Boston Harbor as a Case Study for Adapting to Climate Change
Category
Scientific Sessions > SS38 - Leveraging Aquatic Ecosystems to Address Society's Grand Challenges
Description
Time: 04:30 PM
Date: 30/3/2025
Room: W208