You can create a map for any area across the state by adding map layers of your choice to MassMapper, or view a single-topic map. MassGIS also has many maps and web services at ArcGIS Online. MassGIS does not provide any paper maps.

This dataset underlies a choropleth map of Boston area communities in which areas are shaded according to the percentage of the population that was foreign-born during each decade. The data was drawn from the US Census of Population, as well as the American Community Survey.

Between 1935 and 1940 the federal government’s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) classified the neighborhoods of 239 cities according to their perceived investment risk. This practice has since been referred to as “redlining,” as the neighborhoods classified as being the highest risk for investment were often colored red on the resultant maps. The Mapping Inequality project, a collaboration of faculty at the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab, the University of Maryland’s Digital Curation Innovation Center, Virginia Tech, and Johns Hopkins University has digitized and georectified all 239 HOLC maps and made them publicly available, including the HOLC map of Boston from 1938. The Boston Area Research Initiative has coordinated (i.e., spatial joined) the districts from the 1938 HOLC map of Boston with census tracts from the 2010 U.S. Census. This dataset contains the original shapefile and the spatially joined tract-level data.

Throughout history, government and industries have neglected investments in some neighborhoods, especially communities of color, who are more likely to have fewer resources.

This map compares the number of households living above the poverty line to the number of households living below. In the U.S. overall, there are 6.2 households living above the poverty line for every 1 household living below. Green areas on the map have a higher than normal number of households living above compared to below poverty. Orange areas on the map have a higher than normal number of households living below the poverty line compared to those above in that same area.In this map you see the ratio of households living above the poverty line to households living below the poverty line. For the U.S. overall, there are 6.2 households living above the poverty line for every household living below. This map is shaded to clearly show which areas have about the same ratio as the U.S. overall, and which areas have far more families living above poverty or far more families living below poverty than "normal.""The poverty rate is one of several socioeconomic indicators used by policy makers to evaluate economic conditions. It measures the percentage of people whose income fell below the poverty threshold. Federal and state governments use such estimates to allocate funds to local communities. Local communities use these estimates to identify the number of individuals or families eligible for various programs." Source: U.S. Census BureauThe map shows the ratio for states, counties, tracts and block groups, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) for 2013 for the previous 12 months. -------------------The Civic Analytics Network collaborates on shared projects that advance the use of data visualization and predictive analytics in solving important urban problems related to economic opportunity, poverty reduction, and addressing the root causes of social problems of equity and opportunity. For more information see About the Civil Analytics Network.

Where are the most affluent communities in the USA? This map uses the percentage of households earning $200,000 or more per year as an indicator of these communities, in each neighborhood, county and state. Color is used to identify states at smaller scales and counties at larger scales. For each color, darker tones indicate higher percentages.Data is from Esri's 2011 Updated Demographics.-------------------------The Civic Analytics Network collaborates on shared projects that advance the use of data visualization and predictive analytics in solving important urban problems related to economic opportunity, poverty reduction, and addressing the root causes of social problems of equity and opportunity. For more information see About the Civil Analytics Network.

To access parcel information:Enter an address or zoom in by using the +/- tools or your mouse scroll wheel. Parcels will draw when zoomed in.Click on a parcel to display a popup with information about that parcel.Click the "Basemap" button to display background aerial imagery.From the "Layers" button you can turn map features on and off.Complete Help (PDF)Parcel Legend:Full Map LegendAbout this ViewerThis viewer displays land property boundaries from assessor parcel maps across Massachusetts. Each parcel is linked to selected descriptive information from assessor databases. Data for all 351 cities and towns are the standardized "Level 3" tax parcels served by MassGIS. More details ...Read about and download parcel dataUpdatesV 1.1: Added 'Layers' tab. (2018)V 1.2: Reformatted popup to use HTML table for columns and made address larger. (Jan 2019)V 1.3: Added 'Download Parcel Data by City/Town' option to list of layers. This box is checked off by default but when activated a user can identify anywhere and download data for that entire city/town, except Boston. (March 14, 2019)V 1.4: Data for Boston is included in the "Level 3" standardized parcels layer. (August 10, 2020)V 1.4 MassGIS, EOTSS 2021

Urban heat islands are small areas where temperatures are unnaturally high - usually due to dense buildings, expansive hard surfaces, or a lack of tree cover or greenspace. People living in these communities are exposed to more dangerous conditions, especially as daytime high and nighttime low temperatures increase over time. NOAA Climate Program Office and CAPA Strategies have partnered with cities around the United States to map urban heat islands. Using Sentinel-2 satellite thermal data along with on-the-ground sensors, air temperature and heat indexes are calculated for morning, afternoon, and evening time periods. The NOAA Visualization Lab, part of the NOAA Satellite and Information Service, has made the original heat mapping data available as dynamic image services.Dataset SummaryPhenomenon Mapped: Sensing package time step valuesUnits: decimal degrees Cell Size: 30 metersPixel Type: 32 bit floating pointData Coordinate Systems: WGS84 Mosaic Projection: WGS84 Extent: cities within the United StatesSource: NOAA and CAPA StrategiesPublication Date: September 20, 2021What can you do with this layer?This imagery layer supports communities' UHI spatial analysis and mapping capabilities. The symbology can be manually changed, or a processing template applied to the layer will provide a custom rendering. Each city can be queried.Cities IncludedBaltimore, Boise, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Nampa, Oakland-Berkeley, Portland, Richmond, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Juan, Victorville, Washington, West Palm Beach, Worcester, Charleston and YonkersCities may apply to be a part of the Heat Watch program through the CAPA Strategies website. Attribute Table Informationcity_name: Boston MAMorning air temperatures in cities

This layer is a digital raster graphic of the historical 15-minute USGS topographic quadrangle maps of coastal towns in Massachusetts. These quadrangles were mosaicked together to create a single data layer of the coast of Massachusetts and a large portion of the southeastern area of the state. The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) obtained the map images from the Harvard Map Collection. The maps were produced in the late 1890s and early 20th century at a scale of 1:62,500 or 1:63,360 and are commonly known as 15-minute quadrangle maps because each map covers a four-sided area of 15 minutes of latitude and 15 minutes of longitude. A digital raster graphic (DRG) is a scanned image of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) standard series topographic map. In ArcSDE the image is named IMG_USGS_HIST_COASTAL.

The Census Bureau does not recognize or release data for Boston neighborhoods. However, Census tracts can be aggregated to approximate Boston neighborhood boundaries to allow for reporting and visualization of Census data at the neighborhood level. Census tracts are created by the U.S. Census Bureau as statistical geographic subdivisions of a county defined for the tabulation and presentation of data from the decennial census and the American Community Survey. The 2020 Census tract boundary files for Boston can be found here. These tract-approximated neighborhood boundaries are used for work with Census data. Work that does not rely on Census data generally uses the Boston neighborhood boundaries found here.

March 2024

The Communities at Sea maps use Vessel Trip Report location point data as input to create density polygons representing visitation frequency ("fisherdays"). The data show total labor including crew time and the time spent in transit to and from fishing locations. They do not show other variables such as vessel value or number of pounds landed. The results can be interpreted as maps of "community presence." This layer shows data for the large bottom trawl fishing gear group for Boston, MA from 2011-2015.

In spring 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey, as part of its Boston 133 Cities Urban Area mapping program, contracted for true-color imagery covering the metropolitan Boston area and beyond. Image type for the entire region (more than 1.7 million acres) is 24-bit, 3-band (red, green, blue) natural color. Each band has pixel values ranging 0-255. Pixel resolution is 30 cm., or approximately one foot. In spring 2009, USGS continued the project and 4-band 30cm imagery was obtained for the remainder of the state.

This digital orthoimagery can serve a variety of purposes, from general planning, to field reference for spatial analysis, to a tool for data development and revision of vector maps. It can also serve as a reference layer or basemap for myriad applications inside geographic information system (GIS) software.

The data are served from MassGIS' ArcGIS Online account as a tiled cached map service for fast display.

For full metadata and links to download the imagery visit http://www.mass.gov/itd/colororthos2008.

Noise pollution in cities has major negative effects on the health of both humans and wildlife. Using iPhones, we collected sound-level data at hundreds of locations in four areas of Boston, Massachusetts (USA) before, during, and after the fall 2020 pandemic lockdown, during which most people were required to remain at home. These spatially dispersed measurements allowed us to make detailed maps of noise pollution that are not possible when using standard fixed sound equipment. The four sites were: the Boston University campus (which sits between two highways), the Fenway/Longwood area (which includes an urban park and several hospitals), Harvard Square (home of Harvard University), and East Boston (a residential area near Logan Airport). Across all four sites, sound levels averaged 6.4 dB lower during the pandemic lockdown than after. Fewer high noise measurements occurred during lockdown as well. The resulting sound maps highlight noisy locations such as traffic intersections and qui..., We collected sound measurements within four different urban sites in Boston, Massachusetts. Working in small teams of 2-4 people, we used the mobile app SPLnFFT to collect sound level data in A-weighted decibel readings using smartphones. We exclusively used iPhones for data collection for consistency in hardware and software. Before each collection, we calibrated each iPhone to the same standard, which was used for every collection outing. We recorded the L50 value (the median sound level) for each recording because the L50 value is less affected by short bursts of loud sound than the mean reading. Recordings ran for approximately 20 seconds each. We recorded all sound measurements between 9 am and 5 pm on workdays to avoid the influence of rush-hour traffic, and only collected data on days without rain, snow, or strong wind to prevent inaccuracies due to weather. Within these conditions, we collected sound measurements over multiple days and at different times to ensure representative..., , # Data from: Maps made with smartphones highlight lower noise pollution during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown at four locations in Boston

https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ncjsxkt35

Dataset contents include csv files of all data (each file describes collection year and site of data), R script used to create noise maps, and kml files needed to run the map creation code.

Description of the data and file structure

Each csv file contains the L50 values (median sound level) taken from hundreds of 20 second recordings over multiple collection days. The SPLnFFT application exports the latitude and longitude of where the recording was taken, which is also included in the csv files and is used to create the noise maps. The csv files are used as data frames for the R script to create noise maps for each collection site. The R script contains comments and instructions to clearly indicate each step of the map creation. The kml files are used to create bound...

Information compiled by the Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP).

This CSV contains data from the Boston Chamber of Commerce's Annual Report for 1899, which identified the countries that imported and exported goods to/from Boston (pg 233). The goods and cities identified in this map were determined from the rest of the report. Cities from around the world received or shipped goods to Boston. The highest percentage of cities are located in Europe, with a few other cities scattered in Asia, Africa, and South America. One city in Australia is also included.Data used in web map featured in Hoosac Tunnel Docks story map on Boston National Historical Park website.

Data, statistics and adopted local options related to property taxes

October 2025

November 2021