Boston Urban Hazard Maps
Interactive analysis of 81,885 sharps collection requests and 2,293 encampment reports submitted to Boston's 311 system from 2015 to 2026. Sourced from the City of Boston's open data portal, updated regularly for public health research and community awareness.
Key Statistics
Between 2015–2026, Boston residents submitted 81,885 sharps collection requests through the city's 311 system. Peak activity occurs on Wednesdays, averaging 607 requests per month citywide.
Heatmap
Trends & Patterns
Top Zip Codes
The most active zip codes for sharps requests, led by 02118 with 23,904 reports.
About This Data
This dashboard maps publicly available data from Boston's 311 open data portal. Boston's 311 system is the city's non-emergency service request platform — residents use it to report everything from potholes to graffiti to discarded needles.
We currently display two datasets: sharps collection requests (81,885 reports) and encampment reports (2,293 reports). We also use NLP classification to detect human waste reports hidden in street cleaning requests. These are separate, unrelated complaint types that happen to be available through the same API. We are not implying any correlation or causation between them — we're simply mapping the data as the city provides it. As more geolocated 311 categories become available, we may add them.
All data is sourced from the City of Boston Open Data Portal via the CKAN API. This project is open source under the MIT license and intended for public health research and community awareness.