Planning for Heat Resilient Communities
Lead researchers: V. Kelly Turner, David P. Eisenman, Eric Hoek, Cara Horowitz, Travis Longcore
Funder: UCLA Sustainable Grand Challenge Sandpit Program
LCI is part of a nearly $1 million interdisciplinary research award to determine where and when people moving around LA are most vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat and to assess which communities most need cooling interventions. The researchers will engage directly with communities to produce the best possible designs and locations for cooling structures.
Recommendations for Designing Cost-Effective Outdoor Cooling Interventions in Micro-climate Zones (current project)
Researchers: Kelly Turner and Ariane Middel
Funder: California Strategic Growth Council
The researchers are collaborating with the frontline communities of Eastern Coachella Valley, Ontario, Pacoima in the NE San Fernando Valley of LA, and Watts in South LA on rigorous outcome-based research those most vulnerable to climate change impacts. The broader aim is to empower communities to implement cooling solutions for bus stops and other streetscapes to facilitate the increased use of transit and active transportation, in order to reduce pollution while creating climate-resilient neighborhoods.
Researchers: Kelly Turner, Mark Vestal, and Bharat Venkat
Funder: UCLA Transdisciplinary Research Acceleration Grant
This first-of-its-kind study aims to answer: How did communities of color become disproportionately burdened by extreme heat? In a case study of Watts, Los Angeles — a historically Black neighborhood where temperatures are 4.7°F hotter than the city average — the team is examining how the neighborhood’s microclimate has changed over time to pinpoint what discriminatory interventions contributed to the present-day heat burden.
Researchers: C.J. Gabbe, Jamie Suki Chang, Morayo Kamson, and Euichan Seo
Funder: Santa Clara University Environmental Justice and the Common Good Research Grant
In this study, the researchers identified where unhoused residents in Santa Clara County were disproportionately exposed to heat and how they coped. They found that unhoused participants favored staying in places where they had more stability but these locations tended to have less access to shade and water, thus they faced difficult trade-offs.
UCLA researchers: V. Kelly Turner, Emma M. French, John Dialesandro, and Hana Abdellati
Through analysis of municipal planning documents from 50 large cities across the country, the study found that 78% of these cities’ climate plans mentioned heat as a problem. And yet, few offered a comprehensive strategy to address it — and even fewer addressed the disproportionate impact heat has on low-income residents and communities of color.
Researchers: V. Kelly Turner, Emma M French, John Dialesandro, and Hana Abdelatty
This study examines how the temperature data decision makers use to inform their policies may not accurately represent how heat affects people. The study authors call for more comprehensive data, including humidity and shade, and improved climate literacy among policymakers and planners to understand the complex dynamics of managing urban heat.
Researchers: Alan Barreca, R. Jisung Park, and Paul Stainier
Funding included support from: California Strategic Growth Council
This study examines electricity use and disconnection data from 2012–2017. It finds that each additional day with a maximum temperature of 95 °F causes electricity expenses to increase by 1.6%, and the relative risk of disconnection to increase by 1.2%.
Researchers: Gregory Pierce, C.J. Gabbe, and Annabelle Rosser
Funding included support from: California Strategic Growth Council
The study finds that households in manufactured housing face consistently higher exposure to extreme heat and wildfires. This research underscores the necessity to strengthen the resilience of existing manufactured housing, provide more affordable housing alternatives in less exposed locations, and limit the growth of new housing in highly exposed areas.
Researchers: C.J. Gabbe, Evan Mallen, and Alexander Varni
The researchers find that households in detached single-family homes have the lowest heat risk and multifamily renters have the highest heat risk. AC availability is a major contributing factor and there are heat risk disparities for households in neighborhoods with larger proportions of Hispanic and Asian residents.
Researchers: C.J. Gabbe, Gregory Pierce, Emily Petermann, and Ally Marecek
Funder: Strategic Growth Council Climate Change Research Program
This paper studies municipal heat adaptation using survey and planning data from California. The researchers found that cities with heat-related policies have greater degrees of projected extreme heat, leadership support, environmental justice planning, and smaller Hispanic population shares. In the large cities studies, some strategies, such as expanding tree canopies, have been widely adopted while others have been rarely included.
Researchers: Kelly Turner, Emma French, and David Hondula
Researchers developed an open source database of 175 adopted management plans that mention heat from the 50 most populous cities in the US.
Researchers: C.J. Gabbe and Gregory Pierce
Funding included support from: California Strategic Growth Council
The researchers find that subsidized housing is disproportionately located in census tracts at the intersection of high projected extreme heat days (in 2040s), heat-sensitive populations, and barriers to adaptation. These findings indicate the need for targeted housing and land use policy interventions to reduce heat vulnerability.
Researchers: Ariane Middel, Kelly Turner, Florian Schneider, Yujia Zhang, and Matthew Stiller
Awarded as the best 2020 paper by the Climate Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers, this study collected the first field temperature measurements of solar reflective pavement. It found that surface temperatures decreased as expected, but human thermal comfort increased midday. It foregrounds the importance of planning context when locating cooling interventions.
