BOSTON, Aug. 03, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As part of its Climate Ready Boston initiative, the City of Boston has selected Arcadis to assess the city’s vulnerabilities related to climate change. Arcadis, the leading design & consultancy firm for natural and built assets, will lead the project team responsible for technical assessment, design and communications support for Climate Ready Boston. This multi-disciplinary team consists of Sasaki Associates and the UMass Boston Climate Institute.

The ambitious joint initiative of the City of Boston and the Boston Green Ribbon Commission will provide a planning framework and technical foundation for the City’s long-term climate preparedness. Boston’s goal is to produce a more detailed assessment of the City’s physical, infrastructure, environmental and social vulnerabilities to projected climate change. Arcadis is working closely together with University of Massachusetts Boston which provided the climatologic data, and with HR&A Advisors, Inc., which is overseeing the overall program as part of Mayor Walsh’s Imagine Boston 2030, the first city-wide plan in 50 years.

With over a century of experience protecting the notoriously flood-prone Dutch coastline, Arcadis will draw on its Dutch heritage and its global expertise in resiliency and climate adaptation, such as ongoing flood protection projects in New York City after Hurricane Sandy and risk reduction engineering in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. As a result, Arcadis has developed custom tools to evaluate current and future vulnerabilities and risks, as well as identify resiliency strategies that are most beneficial for the long-term sustainability of communities facing a variety of climate-related challenges.   

Edgar Westerhof, Arcadis national director for flood risk and resiliency, observed, “Climate change may be a global threat, but its impacts play out differently from city to city. Understanding the probability of storm disruptions, heat effects and sea level rise in Boston will help the city focus its resources where they are needed most. Addressing the important social aspects of climate risk, engaging the public and creating a vision for the future will put Boston in the forefront of resilience planning.”

More information about Climate Ready Boston is available at http://climateready.boston.gov.

Press contact: Marc Lumpkin, Arcadis, (303) 471-3485 or marc.lumpkin@arcadis.com. 

About Arcadis
Arcadis is the leading global Design & Consultancy firm for natural and built assets. Applying our deep market sector insights and collective design, consultancy, engineering, project and management services, we work in partnership with our clients to deliver exceptional and sustainable outcomes throughout the lifecycle of their natural and built assets. We are 27,000 people active in over 70 countries that generate more than $3.8 billion in revenues. We support UN-Habitat with knowledge and expertise to improve quality of life in rapidly growing cities around the world. www.arcadis.com.