GLOSSARY

"The Amelia Earhart Dam is an earth-fill dam spanning the Mystic River near its mouth between Somerville and Everett, Massachusetts. It was built in 1966 to regulate tidal effects and the incursion of salt water in the upstream river basin." Wikipedia + Image

"A form of risk management that seeks to reduce climate-related vulnerabilities or take advantage of potential benefits." National Park Service

"'Climate justice' is a term, and more than that a movement, that acknowledges climate change can have differing social, economic, public health, and other adverse impacts on underprivileged populations." Yale Climate Connections

"Reducing the flow of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere." NASA

"Climate resilience is the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate. Improving climate resilience involves assessing how climate change will create new, or alter current, climate-related risks, and taking steps to better cope with these risks." Center for Climate and Energy Solutions

"Cyanobacteria, also referred to as blue-green algae, are microscopic organisms that live primarily in fresh water and salt water, at the surface and below. They usually multiply and bloom when the water is warm, stagnant, and rich in nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) from sources such as fertilizer runoff or septic tank overflows." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

"Extreme heat is a period of high heat and humidity with temperatures above 90 degrees for at least two to three days. In extreme heat your body works extra hard to maintain a normal temperature, which can lead to death. Extreme heat is responsible for the highest number of annual deaths among all weather-related hazards." Ready.gov

"People who work outside (currently about a fifth of American workers, or 32 million people, including farm and construction workers, and disproportionately people of color), people dependent on walking or public transportation, lower-income residents who cannot afford the equipment or electricity required for air conditioning, the incarcerated and the unhoused are all at higher risk." The Guardian

"Floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) or islands are small artificial platforms that allow these aquatic emergent plants to grow in water that is typically too deep for them. Their roots spread through the floating islands and down into the water creating dense columns of roots with lots of surface area." International Institute for Sustainable Development

"Any of various gaseous compounds (such as carbon dioxide or methane) that absorb infrared radiation, trap heat in the atmosphere, and contribute to the greenhouse effect." Merriam-Webster

"[A] range of measures that use plant or soil systems, permeable pavement or other permeable surfaces or substrates, stormwater harvest and reuse, or landscaping to store, infiltrate, or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to sewer systems or to surface waters." United States Environmental Protection Agency

"Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica syn. Polygonum cuspidatum), an herbaceous perennial member of the buckwheat family, was introduced from East Asia in the late 1800s as an ornamental and to stabilize streambanks. Knotweed is a highly successful invader of wetlands, stream corridors, forest edges, and drainage ditches across the country... Superficially resembling bamboo, its jointed, hollow stem has many red or purple nodes where the leaves are attached." PennState Extension + Image

"Net zero refers to a state in which the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced by removal out of the atmosphere. The term net zero is important because – for CO2 at least – this is the state at which global warming stops. The Paris Agreement underlines the need for net zero, requiring states to ‘achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century'." Net Zero Climate

"Photovoltaic (PV) technologies – more commonly known as solar panels – generate power using devices that absorb energy from sunlight and convert it into electrical energy through semiconducting materials." Energy.gov

"The major types or sources of renewable energy are: solar energy from the sun, geothermal energy from heat inside the earth, wind energy, biomass from plants, [and] hydropower from flowing water.
They are called renewable energy sources because they are naturally replenished." U.S. Energy Information Administration

"An urban heat island, or UHI, is a metropolitan area that's a lot warmer than the rural areas surrounding it. Heat is created by energy from all the people, cars, buses, and trains in big cities like New York, Paris, and London. Urban heat islands are created in areas like these: places that have lots of activity and lots of people." National Geographic

"The tiny animals found near the surface in aquatic environments... they are usually weak swimmers and usually just drift along with the currents." Marine Bio