2024 Year In Review

Common SENSES

Consisting of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Project RIGHT, Northeastern University, and the City of Boston, Common SENSES is a collaborative and community-led research project supporting environmental justice, quality of life, and health equity in neighborhoods along Blue Hill Avenue.

Mission of Common SENSES

Mapping community experiences of environmental hazards.

Collaboratively placing sensors to measure hazards and their causes.

Supporting advocacy for community data-driven solutions.

Using data to imagine solutions for addressing hazards.

What's been done?

Co-designed Workshops

We developed activities that engaged community residents around hazards.

Mapped Hazard Stories

We organized community input into maps showing the experiences of hazards.

Community Meetings

We conversed with community members about their experiences with environmental hazards.

Placed Sensors

We placed the first ten sensors along Blue Hill Avenue, tracking hazards in the places the community cared most about.

Community Stories

Air Pollution

Heat

Flooding

Noise

This map contains the diverse experiences with hazards shared by community members.

Each dot represents a story. Click on them to read people's experiences.

Also, scroll down further to see how these stories determined the initial locations for sensors.

This map contains the diverse experiences with hazards shared by community members.

Each dot represents a story. Click on them to read people's experiences.

Also, scroll down further to see how these stories determined the initial locations for sensors.

How's the Air?
Ask a Sensor

This map contains live measures of air pollution for the first 10 sensors installed in the Blue Hill Avenue communities. Click the dots to see how the air is!

Get Involved in the Next Steps!

Join this community, city, and university partnership to continue designing Boston's most comprehensive sensor network. You get to decide where to place sensors to measure your neighborhood's heat, air pollution, and noise!

Also, help design an interactive map on which all community members can monitor hazards and more in the Blue Hill Ave. communities.