Governments at all levels have much to do to respond to heat. We are helping governments launch, evaluate, and use data-driven frameworks, tools, networks, and programs to support local heat planning and action.
California Healthy Places Index: Extreme Heat Edition
National Shade Map for 360+ Cities (2025 map, how-to guide, and research brief)
Researchers: Lana Zimmerman, Kelly Turner, Isaac Buo, and Julia Twichell (American Forests)
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
This is the first time communities have an accessible way to see how much shade they have, where it is, and whether it comes from buildings or vegetation. The tool, developed in partnership with American Forests, aims to help federal, state, and local decision-makers identify existing “shade deserts” and prioritize investments to mitigate the impacts of extreme heat.
Hot New Observations About Shade in the U.S. (2025 reserach brief)
Researchers: Lana Zimmerman, Kelly Turner, and Isaac Buo
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
This research brief summarizes the observations of our experts using the new national Shade Map, created by the Luskin Center for Innovation and American Forests. The researchers find that 1) most cities lack sufficient shade, 2) trees provide 99% of shade when the sun is directly overhead, but buildings contribute more as the day progresses, and 3) many cities have a significant shade gap between neighborhoods.
Site Design and Human Heat Burden: A Case Study in Pacoima (2023 report)
Researchers: V. Kelly Turner, Ariane Middel, Morgan Rogers, Ruth Engel, Florian A. Schneider, and Zachary Van Tol
Funder: Community Partners through the Strategic Growth Council Transformative Climate Communities evaluation funding
This study examines how urban design influences the human experience of heat in Pacoima, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. Researchers find the primary factor in reducing heat burden is the availability of shade.
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.
UCLA Researchers Study Impacts of Streets on Urban Heat (2023 story and article in Environmental Research Communications and Transfer Magazine)
Researchers: V. Kelly Turner, Ruth Engel, and Adam Millard-Ball
Researchers find that the contributions of roads to land surface temperature are not large enough to offset conditions in the areas surrounding them. They also find that trees are the largest contributor to lowering land surface temperature, more so than impervious surface reflectivity.
Urban Heat and Cool Design Facts (2022 factsheet)
Researchers: V. Kelly Turner and Morgan Rogers
This three-pager highlights key facts and visuals about the science of heat, the importance of shade as a cooling strategy, and heat in a setting like playgrounds that can get hot enough to cause third-degree burns on children.
California Healthy Places Index: Extreme Heat Edition (2022 data mapping tool)
Jointly created by: UCLA LCI and the Public Health Alliance of Southern California
This index is an interactive tool designed to help the state ramp up its efforts to prepare for rising temperatures — visualizing where and who will be most affected, and where decision-makers should target investments.
Housing and Urban Heat: Assessing Risk Disparities (2022 article in Housing Policy Debate)
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.
High Temperatures and Electricity Disconnections for Low-Income Homes in California (2022 article in Nature Energy)
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%.
Households Living in Manufactured Housing Face Outsized Exposure to Heat and Wildfire Hazards: Evidence from California (2022 article in Natural Hazards Review)
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.
Temperature, Workplace Safety, and Labor Market Inequality (2021 article in IZA Institute of Labor Economics)
Researchers: R. Jisung Park, Nora Pankratz, and A. Patrick Behrer
Funding included support from: California Strategic Growth Council
This is one of the most comprehensive assessments of temperature on workplace health and safety, and the first assessment of potential implications for labor market inequality. The study finds that workplace injuries linked to heat are significant but extremely undercounted for both indoor and outdoor workers.
Coverage included features in The Guardian, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Times, along with testimony by Professor Park at a U.S. Congressional hearing.
Extreme Heat Vulnerability of Subsidized Housing Residents in California (2020 article in Housing Policy Debate)
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.
Solar Reflective Pavements — A Policy Panacea to Heat Mitigation? (2020 article in Environmental Research Letters)
Researchers: Ariane Middel, V. 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.
Heat and Learning (2020 article in American Economic Association)
Researchers: Joshua Goodman, Michael Hurwitz, R. Jisung Park, and Jonathan Smith
This research, and fact sheet, quantifies how cumulative heat exposure affects learning. Without air conditioning (AC), a 1°F hotter school year reduces student learning by 1%. The researchers also identify how school AC can mitigate this effect, and that low-income and minority students have less access to adequate AC, contributing to the racial achievement gap.
This research garnered over 100 media stories including an op-ed in USA Today, and coverage by PBS News, The Washington Post, TalkPoverty, KPCC Radio, ClimateWire, and America Adapts, among many other major outlets.
Hot Temperature and High Stakes Cognitive Assessments (2020 article in the Journal of Human Resources)
Researcher: R. Jisung Park
This study provides the first estimates of the impact of hot temperatures on high-stakes exam performance and subsequent educational attainments. Hot days reduce performance by up to 15% and have persistent effects on high school graduate status.
Media coverage: The New York Times, BBC News, The 74 Million, Joongang Ilbo (Korean Daily)
The Impact of High Temperatures on Delivery Timing and Gestational Lengths (2019 article in Nature Climate Change)
Researchers: Alan Barreca and Jessamyn Schaller
This study links early childbirths to hotter temperatures due to climate change. It received press coverage by CNN, TIME, The Conversation, and USA Today, among others.
Will We Adapt? Temperature, Labor and Adaptation to Climate Change (2018 working paper)
Researchers: R. Jisung Park and Patrick Behrer
This national study explores heat-related labor impacts. Findings include that hot temperatures exert a causal negative impact on county-level payroll – reducing payroll by several percentage points in a 2◦C hotter year – with larger impacts in highly exposed industries, such as construction and manufacturing.
Maybe Next Month? Temperature Shocks and Dynamic Adjustments in Birth Rates (2018 article in Demography)
Researchers: Alan Barreca, Olivier Deschenes, and Melanie Guldi
In this study, researchers estimated the effects of temperature shocks on birth rates in the U.S. between 1931 and 2010. They found that global warming is making it more difficult for couples to conceive. Specifically, days with a mean temperature above 80°F cause a large decline in birth rates eight to ten months later.
This study was widely cited by the media, including CNN, Reuters, CityLab, and more.