Arizona State University

The impacts of the urban heat island (UHI) and extreme heat events are well documented, including increases in heat-related public health issues, stresses on urban ecology, and energy usage to mitigate the higher temperatures. Increases in urban heat is of particular concern to cities in the Southwest, since it counteracts the cooling that otherwise normally occurs at night. While UHI mapping and modeling has become more sophisticated in recent years, there is still an information gap between the heat maps and models, urban planning and design strategies to decrease heat, and the use of that information in policy decision making. This study documented the current use of urban heat maps and models in communities in Arizona and New Mexico and evaluated best practices and opportunities to increase their usability.

As part of the Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative in 2009, the CDC engaged 16 states and two large cities to implement a five-step program Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE). The CDC is now supporting the monitoring and evaluation of the efforts developed under BRACE: Climate and Health Adaptation Monitoring Program (CHAMP). To support these monitoring and evaluation efforts, this project seeks to quantify the scope of BRACE initiatives through a national survey, which will be distributed in Summer 2020. ADHS has helped design this survey. Results will be reported to ADHS and the CDC. CLIMAS investigators are also working to map the Arizona network of climate/health advocates and to identify knowledge gaps about climate and health connections. This information is informing adaptation and mitigation plans for the state of Arizona as well as Pinal and Maricopa County’s Implementation and Monitoring Strategies.

Climate extremes pose serious threats to human health and place increasing demands on municipal services and infrastructure, and they threaten the long-term sustainability of a region. These extremes have implications for rapid response and emergency management, but they also amplify the effects of underlying social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities and have numerous potential long-term consequences in terms of planning for and dealing with potential disasters. In the Southwest, heat presents a unique opportunity to study the intersection between an acute event (e.g., a multi-day heat wave), and underlying vulnerabilities and risks. It also presents an opportunity to look for cross-sector impacts and potential cascades of impacts.

As the southwestern United States moves into an increasingly different climate than anything we’ve experienced in the modern era, elected officials, city managers, urban sustainability officers, planners, and resource managers are facing decisions that are likely to benefit from insights that emerge from ongoing climate science, impacts research, and promising adaptation practices. In an effort to both inform these decisions and learn from these important stakeholders in Arizona, this project seeks to create a collaborative environment among stakeholders and climate researchers to stimulate and support climate adaptation and resiliency efforts across the state. The project has three goals: 1) provide useful, state-of-the-art climate knowledge to municipal leaders to encourage using climate science in long-range decision processes; 2) work with urban managers and planners to develop tangible products and/or processes that will help planners and decision makers incorporate climate information into their unique planning documents and policies; 3) study the process of engagement and results from the collaboration to contribute to the growing literature about best practices for climate change adaptation.