The Challenge
Cultural resources are susceptible to all climate hazards. Extreme heat, increased precipitation, sea level rise, and increased storms are all factors incentivizing this project.
Project Alignment with ResilientMass Plan Priority Actions
This project addresses the following 2023 ResilientMass Plan and 2022 MA Climate Assessment Impact: Damage to Cultural Resources in the Human Health and Safety Sector. The project aligns with the following 2023 ResilientMass Plan goal: Science-based and Informed Decision-Making. In addition, this project contributes to the following SHMCAP priority actions: 1) Integrate programs and build institutional capacity, 2) Develop forward-looking policies, plans, and regulations, 3) Develop risk-reduction strategies for current and future conditions.
Climate Resilience Project Scope
The goal of this project is to integrate DCR’s Cultural Resource Inventory data with the Asset Management Modernization Program to assist the agency with planning and prioritization efforts. This is a phased project, with phase 1 completed in 2022. Since then, DCR has continued to inventory different regions per year. During FY25, phase four of the project added points to the GIS-based DCR cultural resource inventory and completed data entry for known above-ground cultural resources within DCR’s West Region, Mountain District and the Central Region, Central Highlands District. The expected resilience benefits through this effort consist in incorporating the identified threats and climate vulnerabilities into prioritization of cultural resource preservation efforts and agency-wide spending plans.
Metrics and Results
Efficiency of the project can be measured in the number of resources inventoried and the quality of the data. Over time, the success of the project can be measured by the usability of DCR's GIS-based cultural resource inventory for planning, management, and operations related to park and resource management activities.
As part of this year’s inventory project, a total of 994 cultural resources were entered or updated in the DCR CRI GIS geodatabase by the consultant team. To date, 4,400 historic structures, buildings, landscapes, objects, burial grounds, and other features have been documented.
Best Practices and Lessons Learned
The consultant has recommended the use of ArcGIS Pro desktop software for the large-scale inventory of multiple parks in projects like this one to make data entry and editing more efficient. They also recommend updating the existing web-mapping application to newer formats that are more user-friendly.
Further Action
Two DCR districts remain to be comprehensively surveyed, though some parks in these districts already have numerous cultural resources inventoried in the database. Due to the reduced density of resources and smaller number of parks in these districts, DCR will complete the survey work with in-house staff over the course of the next year or two.