California Healthy Places Index: Extreme Heat Edition

The California Healthy Places Index (HPI): Extreme Heat Edition is a tool developed by the Public Health Alliance in partnership with the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. The tool provides datasets on projected heat exposure for California, place-based indicators measuring community conditions, and sensitive populations. It also provides a list of resources and funding opportunities that can be used to address extreme heat.

The tool can be used to:

  • Understand the underlying heat vulnerability and resilience characteristics of a community
  • Identify resources to mitigate the adverse effects of extreme heat
  • Prioritize public and private investments, resources, and programs
Access the HPI: Heat Edition

California Healthy Places Index: Extreme Heat Edition

How to Use the Tool

Want to learn more about our methodology and the capabilities of the HPI: Extreme Heat Edition?

View the technical report

Technical Report and User Guide

Watch the demo webinar

Demo Webinar

For more information, contact Colleen Callahan: ccallahan@luskin.ucla.edu.

Selected Heat-Related Projects

California is projected to experience higher average temperatures, more extreme heat days, and more frequent heat waves in coming years. Rising temperatures will impact nearly every sector and community across issues ranging from public health, energy use and infrastructure, wildfire risks, water supplies, agricultural outputs, worker safety and productivity, and more.

The tool builds upon the Luskin Center for Innovation’s portfolio of research on climate change impacts and resilience strategies, with a focus on extreme heat. This includes a statewide heat policy gap analysis that has supported the state’s new Heat Action Plan, heat related investments, and Assembly Bill 2076.

UCLA continues to lead on research to help California prepare for a hotter future under the climate crisis. The tool also adds to UCLA’s broader portfolio of resources — including a tool created by the UCLA Center for Healthy Climate Solutions that examines excess emergency room visits for heat related problems at the zip code and county levels.

Acknowledgements

Funding for the tool was provided by the California Strategic Growth Council’s Climate Change Research Program.

The following Luskin Center for Innovation staff contributed to the HPI: Heat Edition:

  • J.R. DeShazo, principal investigator
  • Lolly Lim, project manager
  • Jake Dialesandro, postdoctoral research fellow
  • Rae Spriggs, manager of climate action research