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].
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News
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What will it take to make Baltimore a climate-resilient, 21st-century city?
The 30-odd invitees — a diverse group of neighborhood activists, academics and city officials — were members of his Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative, or BSEC for short. The group was his mechanism for putting neighborhood concerns at the heart of the five-year, $25 million project that is primarily a scientific endeavor, driven by data in four…
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Environmental Justice Funding Picking Up Steam In Chesapeake Bay Region
True to its name, the Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative project aims to engage a wide swath of the community in deciding what ought to be included in the five-year study.
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Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative: Neighborhood Tours + Panel
Learn about the new Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative (BSEC) research initiative, implementing the most meaningful urban environmental measurement and modeling system in the world in collaboration with communities. You are invited to site visits in two of Baltimore’s Justice 40 neighborhoods: Broadway East and Old Goucher.
