As the effects of climate change worsen, the heaviest burdens fall on underinvested urban communities and neighborhoods, which already experience more than their share of environmental challenges, including air and water pollution, flooding, a lack of trees, and excess heat. The Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative (BSEC) recognizes that in order to be just and effective, climate solutions for urban areas must be co-designed with communities. These solutions also must be responsive—and adaptive—to community concerns.
The BSEC offers a new approach in which climate scientists work in close partnership with the citizens of Baltimore to identify community priorities that guide the scientific questions being asked. Then, as data is gathered and findings are made, the work continuously evolves in response to community needs and input. Ultimately the BSEC’s mission is to create a truly community-centered urban climate observatory—based not just on theory but in real neighborhoods—to contribute to climate action plans that make environmental justice a priority.
For more information about the Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative, email us at [email protected].
BSEC Explainers
BSEC Explainers aim to make the work of BSEC more accessible by removing jargon and distilling concepts. Please let us know if they are helpful.
- The Equitable Pathways Method: This explainer looks at the decision support tool that will help BSEC weigh the options for adapting to climate change in a way that improves equity in Baltimore.
- What’s Uncertainty Got to Do with It?: We don’t know what the future holds…but that doesn’t mean we don’t know anything. This explainer takes on the slippery concept of uncertainty and why it’s important in understanding science and creating good policy.
- Systems, Complexity, Wicked Problems, and BSEC: We’re best at thinking about relatively simple things, but neither climate change nor Baltimore are simple. This explainer delves into the challenges of research and setting policy in a complex world.