Charles River Climate Compact
The Charles River Compact aims to bring together communities in the Charles River watershed to work on climate adaptation by sharing information and experiences and taking a watershed view of adaptation strategies.
Many cities and towns are taking proactive leadership roles in adapting to climate change. Even though many cities and towns are allocating resources to climate adaptation, the reality is there are challenges that individual towns cannot address on their own and are more appropriately addressed at a regional scale. Additionally, communities cannot act in a vacuum as the actions of one community will have impacts on neighboring or downstream communities.
The Charles River Climate Compact is:
All communities that are fully or partially within the Charles River watershed are invited to join! Entering the compact just requires a commitment to working on climate adaptation at a regional scale. To demonstrate a commitment to climate adaptation we ask that communities meet two or more of the requirements listed below to be eligible members. Not sure if you're in the Charles River watershed? Find out here.
Many cities and towns are taking proactive leadership roles in adapting to climate change. Even though many cities and towns are allocating resources to climate adaptation, the reality is there are challenges that individual towns cannot address on their own and are more appropriately addressed at a regional scale. Additionally, communities cannot act in a vacuum as the actions of one community will have impacts on neighboring or downstream communities.
The Charles River Climate Compact is:
- A convening of watershed communities to discuss shared challenges and regional challenges to climate adaptation
- A convening of watershed communities to discuss solutions to both shared and regional challenges to climate adaptation
- A convening of watershed communities to investigate watershed scale flooding issues
- A convening of watershed communities to raise issues together, as needed
- Access to technical expertise from CRWA, and our network of environmental partners as needed, to address challenges in the following categories: flooding, stormwater, water quality and quantity, environmental justice, dam removal, wetlands protections, land use, and accessing funding
- Free to join!
All communities that are fully or partially within the Charles River watershed are invited to join! Entering the compact just requires a commitment to working on climate adaptation at a regional scale. To demonstrate a commitment to climate adaptation we ask that communities meet two or more of the requirements listed below to be eligible members. Not sure if you're in the Charles River watershed? Find out here.
Membership benefits
- Networking and information sharing with neighboring communities
- Forum for taking on regional climate adaptation challenges (example: joining with multiple communities and CRWA to push for answers from a state agency or investigate a dam removal opportunity)
- Access to technical expertise from CRWA and our network, CRWA will specifically be asking members to input on what technical and/or policy resources they need and will work to find or create those
- Participation in watershed scale flood planning
Membership requirements
Communities must meet two or more of the listed requirements:
- Be a designated MVP community or in the MVP planning process.
- Have a current hazard mitigation plan that deals with the expected impacts from climate change.
- Have a demonstrated commitment to water conservation.
- Have a demonstrated commitment to green infrastructure.
- Member of (informal) Charles River Stormwater Collaborative.
- Member of Mass ECAN, Metro Mayors adaptation task force, or other similar climate adaptation association
member communitY expectations
- Designate a point person within the community as the Climate Compact representative
- Attend two meetings a year
- After year 1, join and participate in a subcommittee
- Participation in Google group discussions
- Maintain eligibility
Participating Communities
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Arlington Bellingham Brookline Cambridge Dedham Dover Franklin Hopkinton Holliston Lincoln Medway Millis |
Natick Needham Newton Norfolk Somerville Walpole Watertown Wellesley Weston Westwood Wrentham |
Building Resilience Across the Watershed
© Tim Rice
Climate change is a challenge the scale and breadth of which are unmatched by any other in our lifetime. Adapting to the impacts of climate change is a daunting task but many local cities and towns are already taking steps to do so. Having the best possible information on the impacts of climate change locally is critical to guiding local investment and regulatory changes.
The fifteen communities (listed below) that are part of the Charles River Climate Compact (CRCC) have teamed up to develop a Charles River watershed flood model. This initiative is intended to produce both much needed technical information about where and when precipitation driven flood-risk in the watershed is expected to be exacerbated by climate change, and bring consistency across watershed communities in regards to how we are planning and governing for expected climate impacts, thus promoting a more comprehensive and synergistic approach.
The fifteen communities (listed below) that are part of the Charles River Climate Compact (CRCC) have teamed up to develop a Charles River watershed flood model. This initiative is intended to produce both much needed technical information about where and when precipitation driven flood-risk in the watershed is expected to be exacerbated by climate change, and bring consistency across watershed communities in regards to how we are planning and governing for expected climate impacts, thus promoting a more comprehensive and synergistic approach.
Conserving Water in Dedham and Westwood
Conserving water resources is important for our communities and the Charles River. The more water cities and towns need to pump out of the ground to meet the demand of their residents, the less groundwater makes its way into the Charles River, taking habitat away from fish and wildlife. In 2016, the state experienced an historic drought, leaving many smaller rivers and streams across the watershed running dry in late summer months.
In 2017 and 2018, CRWA partnered with Dedham-Westwood Water District to provide an app for homeowners to track usage and conserve water. The free Dropcountr app allows residents of Dedham and Westwood to track their monthly water use, compare it to similar households, connect with utility alerts and rebates, and receive direct support. The app allows provides better community between the Water District and its customers. In the second year of the project CRWA performed a robust data analysis on Dropcountr users water use data and found that households that signed up for Dropcountr had a greater decrease in summertime water use from the previous year, compared with households that did not sign up for Dropcountr. The drop was particularly great among households with very large water use. Their water decreased by 22% on average from the summer of 2015 to the summer of 2017*; compared with a 10% drop over the same period from non-Dropcountr users.
*2016 excluded due to historic drought conditions.
In 2017 and 2018, CRWA partnered with Dedham-Westwood Water District to provide an app for homeowners to track usage and conserve water. The free Dropcountr app allows residents of Dedham and Westwood to track their monthly water use, compare it to similar households, connect with utility alerts and rebates, and receive direct support. The app allows provides better community between the Water District and its customers. In the second year of the project CRWA performed a robust data analysis on Dropcountr users water use data and found that households that signed up for Dropcountr had a greater decrease in summertime water use from the previous year, compared with households that did not sign up for Dropcountr. The drop was particularly great among households with very large water use. Their water decreased by 22% on average from the summer of 2015 to the summer of 2017*; compared with a 10% drop over the same period from non-Dropcountr users.
*2016 excluded due to historic drought conditions.