The Chinatown Heat Action Plan is a roadmap for how Boston Chinatown can prepare for and respond to heat emergencies. This plan was developed in collaboration with residents, local community partners, local institutional partners and staff from key City agencies.
The Chinatown Heat Action Plan is a model of urban resilience. We hope that it can serve as a scalable model for other cities globally to enhance community-led climate adaptation. Cool Down Chinatown is aligned with the City of Boston’s heat resilience plan. The City of Boston’s goal is to reduce heat vulnerability for Bostonians and address heat-related challenges impacting their quality of life, including negative health outcomes and physical or mental distress.
The three core strategies include:
- Reduce Heat Exposure: Reduce residents indoor and outdoor exposure to extreme heat, both in intensity and duration, by enhancing the capacity of the built environment to recover from daytime heat.
- Adapt to Heat: Increase residents’ awareness of strategies to stay safe and cool during heat waves, and expand cooling resources available to residents.
- Foster Healthy, Connected Communities: Create more connected neighborhoods that promotes health and addresses underlying social determinants of health associated with increased heat vulnerability.
In order to reach Chinatown residents in their own language, a bilingual, community-facing brochure explains the Heat Action Plan in plain, practical language, exemplifying the plan’s emphasis on communicate local heat adaptation efforts.
