Spring NEARC 2026: Full Schedule

10:15am EDT

Leveraging AGOL Applications for Climate Adaptation

Tuesday May 26, 2026 10:15am - 10:45am EDT

The City of Cambridge is committed to climate change resiliency and sustainability. The City recently hired a Chief Climate Officer, created an Office of Sustainability, and launched the Sustainable Cambridge Website. GIS has been an integral part of the City’s new Sustainability Division. This presentation will explore some of the more innovative projects focused on how GIS is used to help inform planners and decision makers on city policies, especially those focused on zoning and heat impacts. We will take a look at various AGOL (ArcGIS Online) apps configured to support projects related to buildings, urban forestry, flooding, heat, open space, and transportation, utilizing both 2D and 3D environments to deliver comprehensive perspectives.

Speakers

Jeff Amero

GIS Manager, City of Cambridge

Jeff Amero is the GIS Manager in the Information Technology Dept. for the City of Cambridge, MA. Jeff has over 30 years of experience in the GIS field, and has been with the City for the past 25 years. Jeff’s latest challenge in municipal GIS is to bring 3D GIS and emerging technologies... Read More →

Katie Grillo

GIS Web Technology Specialist, City of Cambridge, MA

Katie Grillo is a GIS Web Technology Specialist. Her mission is to empower data owners to understand how they can visualize their information through maps and digital storytelling. She provides hands-on trainings, presentations, live demos and support, all designed to help educate... Read More →

Tuesday May 26, 2026 10:15am - 10:45am EDT
Room 174

Climate Resilience

10:45am EDT

Equitable Climate Resilience: A GIS Approach to Protecting Vulnerable Communities with NbS

Tuesday May 26, 2026 10:45am - 11:15am EDT

Room 174

Rapid urbanization and climate change are increasing exposure to environmental hazards in urban areas, including flooding, reduced air quality, water pollution, and urban heat island effects. Vulnerable communities, such as those with lower socioeconomic status, face greater risk due to limited adaptive capacity and exclusion from mitigation strategies. Historically, efforts addressing climate change have lacked equitable implementation. Nature-based Solutions (NbS), such as bioretention, urban tree canopy, and parks, offer low-cost, sustainable strategies to address environmental hazards. This research develops an equitable approach to NbS implementation in Providence, Rhode Island, scalable to major U.S. cities. Using GIS-based suitability analysis, it maps locations of need and opportunity based on various criteria and overlays results with a social vulnerability index. This research aims to identify priority sites in vulnerable neighborhoods to support equitable climate resilience.

Speakers

Cate Arnold

Graduate Student Research Assistant, University of Rhode Island

Cate Arnold is a graduate student obtaining her MS in Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Rhode Island. She specializes in Earth and Environmental Science and is pursuing graduate certificates in GIS & Remote Sensing and Coastal Resilience. As a Graduate Research... Read More →

Tuesday May 26, 2026 10:45am - 11:15am EDT
Room 174

Climate Resilience

11:15am EDT

From Mandates to Maps: Leveraging GIS and Web Mapping to Communicate Locally Relevant Climate Risks and Inform Climate Change Adaptation

Tuesday May 26, 2026 11:15am - 11:45am EDT

Room 174

GIS-based spatial analysis and web mapping offer powerful tools for communicating about climate hazards and risks to residents, planners, and policymakers. This presentation will demonstrate how we leveraged ArcGIS Online and StoryMaps to support the City of Syracuse’s Climate Vulnerability Assessment for New York State’s Climate Smart Communities Program. We used GIS to visualize climate data, historical weather events, community assets, and vulnerable people and places to aid the city’s efforts to publicly communicate locally relevant climate change risks, including increased extreme weather events, flooding, and heat. The maps reveal uneven geographies of climate risk vulnerability, such as flood-prone neighborhoods, aging infrastructure, and socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods and present opportunities to empower residents and inform place-based policy interventions at the local scale.

Speakers