What’s going on in Dedham’s Manor Neighborhood?

The Town of Dedham has been busy planning strategies to improve community resilience to the impacts of climate change, including flooding and extreme heat.

During these planning activities, it was noted that certain areas of Dedham’s Manor Neighborhood experience significant flooding during and after heavy rainfall. Since these heavy rainstorms will be more frequent as the climate continues to change, it’s important to build resilience now.

The Project team will develop a more detailed flood model focused on the Manor Neighborhood in order to better understand the kinds of flooding experienced in the area.

Based on this model, the Project Team will also identify potential strategies to reduce certain types of flooding, as well as potential locations for installing flood reduction measures. This more detailed analysis will serve as a model for how such studies could be conducted, and how potential flood reduction measures might be planned, in other partner towns

Questions? Please email NepRWA Managing Director for Community Resilience, Kerry Snyder, at snyder@neponset.org

This project is supported by a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program Action Grant awarded to the Town of Dedham, in partnership with the City of Boston, Boston Water & Sewer Commission, and the Towns of Canton, Foxborough, Medfield, Milton, Norwood, Sharon, Stoughton, Walpole, and Westwood. Project support from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, Neponset River Watershed Association, and Weston and Sampson Engineering.

What is climate change?

It’s a long-term increase in global temperatures. That doesn’t mean that every day is getting warmer, but it does mean that our area is experiencing changes in weather patterns because of those warmer temperatures.

Weather records already show:

  • More heavy rainstorms;
  • More drought;
  • More days that reach 90 degrees or more; and
  • More intense, windy storms

Towns across Massachusetts are working to adapt to these changes. But they can’t do it alone. The Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program funds projects each year to help cities and towns plan for and make necessary changes to reduce risks to people, property, and infrastructure.

Find out more about the impacts of climate change here.