Wicked Hot Boston

On July 29th and 30th of 2019, MOS’s heat mapping campaign gathered 50 citizen scientists made up of a diverse group of participants from NGOs, city planners, university students, and professionals. Citizen science teams were composed of at least one driver and one navigator, who drove together during hour-long mapping periods of 6am, 3pm and 7pm. The 3-D printed car mount and heat-sensing equipment allowed citizen scientists to attach a sensor device to their car and record the ambient air temperature and geospatial data of the surrounding areas.

This method was developed by CAPA Strategies, Portland State University, and the Science Museum of Virginia. MOS worked with city planners in Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline to apply these methods by dividing the three cities into ten mapping routes, as well as recruiting community-based participatory scientists from all areas.

By measuring ambient air temperature, the air we breathe and feel, city planners can more accurately assess the potential health impacts of extreme heat. These data will provide the cities with high resolution temperature data throughout the entire day, which can then be layered with other factors such as tree canopy, surface temperature, income level, elderly population, or emergency room visits. By comparing heat maps with maps of various population demographics city planners and researchers can learn which groups are most affected by urban heat.

Throughout the entire summer, we used citizen science platform called ISeeChange, where participants documented and learned more about the changing environment around them. Posts on ISeeChange’s app or website typically included pictures and descriptions of weather and climate, and anyone anywhere in the world could post to ISeeChange about changes in their communities. 

By working with the creators of ISeeChange, we were able to have an extreme heat investigation for the greater Boston metro area. Anyone within this area could post their observations to this investigation, while being able to interact with other citizen scientists in the area. Posts included highlighting areas that were hotter in the city, areas that had trees or water features to cool down, or how community members were dealing with the heat. Close to 110 sighting were posting to our investigation about extreme heat. Read the deep dive story ISeeChange wrote about this project here.

Wicked Hot Boston is the first phase of a larger project. This phase will be evaluated and revised in order to create the format and citizen science materials for the other climate hazards: extreme precipitation, sea level rise, and drought. In partnership with SciStarter, Arizona State University, Northeastern University, and the National Informal Science Education Network, MOS is working on a project to engage public participants in citizen science and resilience planning on climate hazards through a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) funded project called Citizen Science, Civics, and Resilient Communities (CSCRC). 

The Museum of Science, Boston and partners selected 22 sites across the United States to receive a $2,000 stipend to implement the NOAA funded Citizen Science, Civics, and Resilient Communities (CSCRC) project between March and September 2021.  These CSCRC project partners facilitated these conversations in their communities and increased resilience to extreme weather and environmental hazards through citizen-created data, local knowledge, and community values.