Heat Governance & Policy

We conduct research to inform evidence-based heat governance, including policy, planning, and regulation, to protect vulnerable populations and communities. The work focuses on providing solutions to proactively address heat exposure where people live, work, and go to school — before it becomes an acute health emergency. Our research includes assessing how to make cities more heat resilient through physical interventions and adaptations to protect public health.

After identifying gaps in California’s programs and funds, we created policy briefs to guide an equitable and comprehensive approach to extreme heat. Now we are analyzing funding and policy best practices from across the nation, the federal government, and beyond.

California_State_Capitol_Building_-_Full_Front_Facade

California State Capitol Building; credit: Wikimedia Commons

Current Projects

Center of Excellence for Heat Resilient Communities

Researchers: PI V. Kelly Turner (UCLA LCI), CoPI Sara Meerow (Arizona State University); CoPO Ladd Keith (University of Arizona), Senior Project Manager Trace Lane (UCLA LCI), Program Coordinator Zachary Wampler (UCLA LCI)

Funder: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

UCLA LCI has been awarded a first-of-its-kind federal grant from NOAA to establish the nation’s first National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) Center of Excellence for Heat Resilient Communities. The Center will engage and support communities in determining the best strategies for local heat mitigation and management and make recommendations for federal investment.

Current Projects

Depaving Schools for a Greener Future

Researchers: Melody Ng (PhD student, UCLA, Urban Planning) and Jared Coffelt (PhD student, UCLA, Environment and Sustainability)

Funders: UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and USDA Forest Service

Public schools are key institutions for climate resilience investments in California, including schoolyard tree-planting efforts to mitigate extreme heat. However, past and current policies and other factors have created and reinforced the expansive amount of impervious surfaces in K–12 public schools, a major barrier to greening projects. This report provides recommendations to support depaving efforts.

Published Research

Shade is an Essential Solution for Hotter Cities (2023 commentary in Nature)

Researchers: V. Kelly Turner, Ariane Middel, and Jennifer K. Vanos

Shade is an essential solution for hotter cities. The researchers provide specific recommendations for municipal decision-makers to reduce shade deserts which are most experienced by those in low-income communities, exacerbating heat-health disparities.

Read the article

Guidance for an Equitable and Effective Extreme Heat Strategy in California (2022-23 policy brief series)

Researchers: Colleen Callahan, Lauren Dunlap, Michelle Gallarza, Rae Spriggs, and V. Kelly Turner
Funder: Resource Legacy Fund

While California is planning for rising temperatures with its new Extreme Heat Action Plan, the state has not historically treated extreme heat as a social equity and public health crisis that requires targeted and robustly funded action to save lives. Our policy brief series can help inform policy and budget decisions.

Media coverage on heat-resilient schools research includes NBC, Los Angeles Times, and The Sacramento Bee, among others. A recent lecture on Reducing Extreme Heat & Supporting Thermal Comfort With Schoolyard Forests starts at minute 8:05.

Learn more

Reducing Heat Risk for People Experiencing Unsheltered Homelessness (2023 article in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction)

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.

Read the article

How Are Cities Planning for Heat? Analysis of United States Municipal Plans (2022 article in Environmental Research Letters)

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.

Read the article

Why and How Do Cities Plan for Extreme Heat? (2021 article in Journal of Planning Education and Research)

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.

Read the article

How Are U.S. Cities Planning for Heat? (2021 database)

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.

Visit the database

Deploy Heat Officers, Policies and Metrics (2021 commentary in Nature)

Researchers: Ladd Keith, Sara Meerow, David M. Hondula, V. Kelly Turner, and James C. Arnott

This article calls for cities to take action to manage and mitigate heat, with a focus on leadership, policies, and actionable data, with equity as its core. It lays out some common-sense first steps that cities can take.

Read the article

Adapting to Extreme Heat in California: Assessing Gaps in State-Level Policies and Funding Opportunities (2021 report)

Researchers: J.R. DeShazo, Lolly Lim, and Gregory Pierce
Funder: Strategic Growth Council Climate Change Research Program

This report examines the network of programs and funding opportunities that address heat in the state — most of which do not explicitly or intentionally target heat risk — and identifies the missing pieces that can help protect residents.

Read the report

The UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands). As a land grant institution, we pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.
Click on the linked words to hear the pronunciation for the Tongva-language words.
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