Shade is the most effective way to cool people, especially those who are most vulnerable. By partnering with USC Dornsife Public Exchange and civic partners, we aim to expand and protect the urban tree canopy and shade infrastructure, building heat resilience for Angelenos. ShadeLA is leveraging the attention and investment around the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Learn more

Organizers: Edith B. de Guzman, Colleen Callahan, Monica Dean, Marianna Babboni, Katie Vega, Max Teirstein, and others

Our team is documenting community-led, climate action that is funded by the Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) Program in seven communities: Fresno, Ontario, Pomona, South Stockton, and three Los Angeles neighborhoods (Northeast San Fernando Valley, South Los Angeles, and Watts). We are collecting and sharing data on measurable accomplishments as well as stories from residents, business owners, workers, and others who have shaped — or been shaped by TCC.

Learn more

This project examines the role of local democracy in reshaping towns and cities as they confront growing climate hazards. With support from an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, the research brings together survey data and case studies to appraise how the costs and benefits of climate adaptation policies get distributed both in theory and in practice, and whether local efforts to become more resilient reinforce existing inequalities.

Luskin Center for Innovation scholar Liz Koslov’s book Retreat: Moving to Higher Ground in a Climate-Changed City is an ethnographic account of community-organized retreat from the coast in New York City after Hurricane Sandy. The book, under advance contract with the University of Chicago Press, highlights Dr. Koslov’s examination of the social impacts of buyouts, a form of property acquisition in which houses and lots are purchased from willing sellers with future development prohibited.

Building on the Three-Part Framework for Identifying Plastic-Burdened Communities, UCLA researchers are expanding their assessment of site-based exposure risks from plastic supply chain infrastructure. The research focuses on integrating health and environmental risks to Californian communities from sites and facilities that produce precursor raw materials for plastic manufacturing: oil and gas wells and refineries.

To better quantify the health risks faced by overburdened California communities, we are developing an improved air quality health impact assessment framework. Our experts are conducting epidemiological modeling using advanced air quality models and fine-scale spatial baseline health data that account for social, racial-ethnic, and other susceptibility factors. Model outputs will include adjustment factors for community-specific characteristics that influence health outcomes from exposure to air pollution from multiple sources, including transportation. These factors can then be applied in air pollution health impact assessment approaches. This project will provide the California Air Resources Board with much-needed data to guide air quality policy more equitably.

Many households require home upgrades to transition away from fossil fuels, but disadvantaged communities face inequitable barriers to these energy upgrades. The Gateway Cities Council of Governments Community Contractor Program pilots a new model to address such barriers: creating a team of qualified electrician contractors who work upfront with homeowners to evaluate their opportunity to electrify and seek out the right incentives to do so. This is being carried out in South Gate, due to high rates of both disadvantaged community census tracts as well as low-income owner-occupied households. The researchers are evaluating the success of this program by interviewing contractors and participants to understand the engagement and installation process, as well as analyzing the uptake of incentives and financing in the context of households’ physical electrification readiness and technology awareness.

This new engaged research builds on the Luskin Center for Innovation’s past clean energy affordability recommendations for the LA Department of Water and Power.

Learn more

The Luskin Center for Innovation is partnering with Redeemer Community Partnership to lay the groundwork for residential gas decommissioning in and around the Exposition Park neighborhood of South Los Angeles. The project is part of Justice First: an international collaboration in which academic researchers and community-based organizations have joined together to develop hyperlocal, community-led energy transition plans. The project includes a comparison across project sites to identify commonalities and differences among locally grounded energy transition efforts globally. The team is examining how neighborhood-scale gas decommissioning might help South LA communities address the risk of rising gas distribution costs, while supporting residential electrification, integrating equity and justice principles, and building community capacity.

Led by our faculty director, Megan Mullin, UCLA scholars provided research to inform more than 50 policy recommendations on rebuilding and catalyzing climate-resiliency investments. In the coming months, the commission will continue to promote and encourage the adoption and implementation of the recommendations, and UCLA will continue its actionable research to inform equitable regional recovery and long-term resilience.

We are conducting a rapid forensic assessment of the role of trees in fire dynamics within the Palisades Fire perimeter, in collaboration with partners from UC Davis, UC Agriculture & Natural Resources, and the USDA Forest Service. The results can inform rebuilding efforts and offer lessons for future events. The goals are to:

1.  Measure tree damage, loss, and mortality;
2. Assess fire damage to the urban forest concerning the structure, built environment material, and data on fire dynamics;
3. Find examples of unburned landscaping and vegetation around burnt buildings; and
4. Test the extent to which tree species with varying ecological traits might have ignited and contributed to the spread of the fire.

This project will guide collaborative community engagement design for infrastructure rebuilding after the 2025 LA fires, based on experiences from California’s Transformative Climate Communities program. A race to rebuild transportation infrastructure post-disaster could preclude or increase the cost of other community-defined priorities that emerge during the recovery process. Yet collaborative community engagement processes are difficult to sustain in a post-disaster context. The study identifies strategies for inclusive, community-centered participation within the constraints of a recovery process.

In partnership with Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles, this project aims to address community concerns about air and water quality following the January 2025 fires. The researchers will center community perspectives to collect information about how residents perceived personal environmental risks before, during, and after the fires, including their trust in public information sources. Ultimately, the project seeks to advance environmental justice by supporting community-led efforts to build resilience during climate-driven crises.

As evaluators of the California Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation’s Extreme Heat and Community Resilience investments, our experts are assessing project successes and barriers as well as examining cooling strategies implemented in California and internationally.

Learn more

We are providing a menu of feasible strategies to support the California State Legislature’s ability to facilitate the adoption of mechanical cooling, such as air conditioning, in homes and schools. We are focusing on home and schools because these are two settings where populations most sensitive to heat—infants, youth, seniors, and those with medical issues—spend the most time. This project is informed by engagement with California legislators, agency staff, nonprofit leaders, and heat legislation research across the country.

This project examines the experience of communities currently engaging in heat planning and infrastructure investments through California’s new Extreme Heat and Community Resilience program to understand if and how supportive policies can reduce disconnects between local capacity and federal expectations.

This first-of-its-kind study aims to answer: How did communities of color get 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.

Learn more

In partnership with the LA Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability (LARC), Luskin Center for Innovation researchers are helping implement the California Communities Extreme Heat Scoring System (CalHeatScore), a pilot heat ranking system (legislated through AB 2233) that uses public health data on emergency room visits (building on a system created by David Eisenman called UCLA Heat Maps).

Uniquely, the tool links conventional temperature-based heat warning system thresholds to the likelihood of harm. The Luskin Center for Innovation is 1) analyzing and reporting leading heat alert practices from around the world to the state, and 2) supporting LARC in end-user engagement to improve tool implementation.

Learn more

Communities everywhere are grappling with ways to become more resilient to climate change, which means planning for multiple hazards and factoring in social causes and consequences. UCLA is leading efforts to understand how hotter conditions affect the health and well-being of disadvantaged groups in Corpus Christi, Texas.

We are collaborating with the frontline communities of Eastern Coachella Valley, Ontario, Pacoima in the Northeast San Fernando Valley of LA, and Watts in South LA on outcome-based research on those who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The goal is to empower communities to implement cooling solutions for bus stops and other streetscapes, facilitate the increased use of transit and active transportation, and reduce pollution while creating climate-resilient neighborhoods.

Learn more

In partnership with the UCLA Institute for Environment and Sustainability, the Luskin Center for Innovation is extending our shade equity planning work in Los Angeles and integrating cell phone mobility data to understand where and when people are exposed to heat. We can then overlay other information, such as temperature and shade maps, to better inform decision-making to mitigate heat hazards.

Learn more

The Luskin Center for Innovation co-leads the Urban Forest Equity Collective, a consortium of forestry experts, LA city staff, community-based organizations, researchers, and consultants. The Collective aims to create holistic strategies to advance urban forest equity in the lowest-canopied neighborhoods in LA. By conducting a comprehensive analysis and creating strategies, the group works to address decades of systemic disinvestment and planning decisions that have resulted in poor public health outcomes, limited access to green spaces, and a host of related consequences ranging from heat exposure and poor air quality to food insecurity and reduced ecosystem services.

Learn more

The Luskin Center for Innovation has partnered with the City of Los Angeles Office of Forest Management, which regularly seeks our advice on best practices for urban forest equity planning. The decision-making framework we pioneered with the LA Urban Forest Equity Collective has been adopted by the city in its urban forest management planning process.

The UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation was awarded a first-of-its-kind federal grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish the nation’s first National Integrated Heat Health Information System Center of Excellence for Heat Resilient Communities. The Center engages and supports communities in determining the best strategies for local heat mitigation and management and will make recommendations for public and private investment.

Learn more

The Luskin Center for Innovation is part of a nearly $1 million interdisciplinary research award to determine where and when people in L.A. are most vulnerable to the effects of heat, to identify which communities most need cooling interventions. The researchers are engaging directly with communities to produce the best possible designs and locations for cooling structures.

Learn more

The Eastern Coachella Valley Shade Equity Master Plan will provide a roadmap for the unincorporated communities of Mecca, North Shore, Oasis, and Thermal to invest in new shade infrastructure and adapt to extreme heat. The plan will recommend where and how to create more shade based on input from residents, government, and other key stakeholders, as well as a detailed analysis of needs and opportunities. The Luskin Center for Innovation is working with Kounkuey Design Initiative to identify policy pathways and actionable strategies for increasing shade in these areas.

Learn more

Luskin Center for Innovation staff is advising on the National Science Foundation-funded heat and urban forest science Empowering Changemakers: Urban-Biodiversity Initiative for Teachers and Youth (ECUITY). The initiative is developing an environmental justice biodiversity curriculum for middle schools in Los Angeles, supporting the City of Los Angeles’s goal of zero net biodiversity loss.

We are partnering with three communities across the City of Los Angeles (communities in South LA, Wilmington/surrounding areas, and Pacoima/surrounding areas) to improve procedural equity for electric vehicle adoption and charging station siting decisions in disadvantaged communities. We are conducting a three-workshop series in each community, aiming to elicit community perspectives and priorities with respect to public charging station deployment, and ultimately co-design a public charging station siting framework that maximizes community benefits. This project is part of a larger effort that is a partnership with several other UCLA research teams and California State University, Northridge.

Learn more

First, we are conducting a literature review to evaluate to what extent existing environmental benefit policies and programs targeting vulnerable populations have achieved distributive and procedural equity outcomes within and outside the transportation sector, and identify research gaps. Second, we are analyzing the attainment of procedural equity in the Clean Vehicle Assistance Program and Access Clean California. Our findings will contribute to policymakers’ and advocates’ efforts toward enhanced program implementation strategies and a broader understanding of the challenges and opportunities.

As water and wastewater utilities strive to find a way to balance infrastructure investments, asset management, workforce development, and climate change impacts, they must seek ways to increase operational efficiency and cut costs. This project seeks to establish a firm understanding of existing utility governance structures and the impacts they have on utility decision-making.

Learn more

Led by Rural Community Assistance Partnership Incorporated, the Luskin Center for Innovation, and partners are conducting six assessments for drinking water quality/compliance in five states and one US territory over the next four years. This report will enable state officials and water system managers to identify solutions and access federal funding for much-needed water quality improvements.

This project seeks to understand the economic impacts of reduced water availability (due to urban conservation) on recycled water and wastewater systems in California. The multi-university team is forecasting water demand and efficiency trends, evaluating links between urban water supply and wastewater systems, identifying potential impacts to recycled water production, and assessing impacts on affordability for systems across the state.

We are supporting public engagement and understanding of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment’s joint, city-wide flagship water recycling program, Pure Water Los Angeles. The team is analyzing its equity implications, including tap water trust and affordability, and establishing a long-term framework for equitable water access across the city.

Learn more

Led by the Pacific Institute, the Luskin Center for Innovation, the University of North Carolina Environmental Finance Center, and Corvias Infrastructure Solutions are researching emerging approaches employed by utilities implementing affordable water programs for low-income customers.

Learn More

The researchers aim to address the persistent issue of unsafe and unreliable drinking water across the U.S. by focusing on the widespread fragmentation of community water systems. They will build a scalable, data-driven model that estimates feasible compliance solutions – either treatment upgrades or system consolidation – and associated capital costs for systems violating drinking water standards.

Learn more

No one knows exactly how many of the 100,000 miles of sewer lines and 900+ utility providers and treatment plants in California provide adequate service, yet. We are conducting a first-of-its-kind study to answer this question and advance equitable sanitation services.

Learn more