Researchers: Gregory Pierc, C.J. Gabbe, Lauren Dunlap, et al.
Addressing extreme heat has emerged as a key frontier of urban climate adaptation planning. However, most studies have focused on large cities, whereas most of the existing urban population lives and urban growth occurs in small- to medium-sized municipalities within metropolitan areas in the U.S. and globally. We hypothesise, based on structuration theory, that these smaller municipalities face fundamentally different constraints and opportunities to enhance their heat planning capabilities than large cities. Accordingly, in this stud,y we analyze heat planning capacity, current activities, and expansion opportunities in small- to medium-sized cities across two neighbouring but distinct regions in California: northern Los Angeles County (n = 20) and the southern San Joaquin Valley (n = 38). Using data from these 58 cities, we first comprehensively reviewed heat-related activities in their key planning documents. We then conducted 17 semi-structured interviews with local government planners, planning consultants, and utilities’ staff to more holistically analyze how heat planning and implementation occur on the ground. The planning document analysis shows that a narrow majority of cities identified heat as a general issue of concern. The most common long-term adaptation and resilience strategies were enhancing urban tree canopy, green infrastructure, and shade structures, but both prevalence and strategy type vary by heat exposure level, population size, and the socioeconomic status of cities. However, in interviews, we generally found that while local officials had high levels of heat awareness, they had low levels of focused capacity and deployed heat interventions compared with other climate adaptation efforts.
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