City of Malden Awarded $38,000 by Commonwealth of MA for GZA to Develop Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Plan

MALDEN and NORWOOD, Mass. June 27, 2019 – Mayor Gary Christenson announced today that GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc. (GZA), a leading multi-disciplinary firm providing geotechnical, environmental, ecological, water, and construction management services, has been selected to assist the City of Malden in winning eligibility for state grants to improve Malden’s resiliency to flooding, natural hazards, and impacts of climate change.

With support from a $38,000 grant from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, GZA consulting engineers will support Malden in completing the Community Resilience Building Workshop process to achieve Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Community status. The “MVP Community” designation will make Malden eligible for future state grants for projects such as storm drain upgrades to improve Malden’s resiliency to climate change and natural hazards, particularly flooding.

“I strongly support our City’s commitment to making our community more resilient to the future impacts from climate change,” Mayor Christenson said. “The designation as an MVP Community is an important step in making Malden more resilient long into the future.” 

GZA CEO Patrick Sheehan said: “GZA is honored to have been selected as the City of Malden’s partner in this critical work to strengthen Malden’s resiliency to major weather events and climate change. GZA will draw on our deep experience working with dozens of other Massachusetts communities to provide Malden with our best professional guidance on becoming an MVP Community and identifying the most important future work to complete.”

Malden is located in the watersheds of the Mystic and Saugus Rivers as well as the floodplain of Town Line Brook along Malden’s border with Revere. Flood risks in Malden relate primarily to nor’easters and severe rainstorms, and increased frequency and intensity of precipitation and/or amount of stormwater runoff due to climate change will cause more frequent flooding that overwhelms the capacity of natural or engineered drainage systems, causing overflows.

With support from The Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA), GZA and the Resilient Mystic Collaborative will partner to focus on increasing social and physical resiliency to climate change through a public outreach process. GZA is the MVP-certified provider helping the City of Malden develop their MVP plan by June 30, 2020.

New strategies for managing stormwater and flooding are expected to become an increasingly pressing challenge for Massachusetts communities like Malden. The UMass Amherst RiverSmart project estimates precipitation in the North Atlantic region will increase 10 to 30 percent by 2100, including a growing number of extreme inundation events.