U of A to help develop heat-fighting policies across US

Ahead of what is projected to be another scorching summer, the University of Arizona has received $108,000 in federal funding to collaborate with communities across the US to develop policies and action plans to both mitigate and manage heat.

The project is funded as part of a $2.25 million grant from the Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that will fund a new Center for Heat Resilient Communities. It’s part of a partnership with UCLA and Arizona State University that will support efforts in 30 communities across the United States for the next three years.

“We’ll be announcing, in hopefully the next couple of months, the process for communities to be selected into that cohort,” said Ladd Keith, an associate professor of urban planning at the University of Arizona.

The creation of this new collaborative network marks a significant change in heat and climate policy in the United States, Keith said.

“Until recently, the federal government has devoted more attention to other hazards like flooding, drought, wildfires, and sea level rise.” Keith said. “This is a really important investment by the federal government to ensure that our communities across the nation are resilient.”

Heat is a public health issue just as serious as any other climate disaster, said Heidi Brown, professor of public health at the University of Arizona College of Public Health.

“It doesn’t take long to see the devastating impacts that it’s having,” Brown said.

The public health dangers from heat are numerous, Brown said, with heat waves resulting in increased emergency room visits, increased deaths from viruses and mosquito borne illnesses, and an expected increased smoke inhalation from wildfires and related respiratory distress.

“A lot of these deaths that occurred from related illness and other adverse outcomes of climate change are preventable.” Brown said. “We have the obligation to try to understand these diseases and combat them in order to promote health and well being.”

Some heat prone cities like Phoenix have begun to plan for heat mitigation, but Keith worries that most cities still lack the capacity or resources to engage in comprehensive heat planning.

The programs and guidance developed by the Center for Heat Resilience to help selected communities create heat resilience strategies will rely heavily on ongoing research conducted by Brown and others at the University of Arizona.

“We’ll be drawing on that background,” Keith said. “And supporting this cohort of communities across the country on how to better organize and coordinate their cooling center efforts.”

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Keith said that the role of the Center for Heat Resilient Communities will be to translate the team’s knowledge and research into an actionable framework that communities can use.

“Developing a comprehensive heat resilient communities framework, will enable and support communities to go through this framework as is appropriate to their local condition,” Keith said.

The key to successfully implementing the center’s community efforts will be the three way communication between researchers, the federal government, and the participating communities. That part of that collaboration will include advising federal partners on how they can better invest in heat related efforts across the United States, Keith said.

“This is about working with communities and organizations that are trying to figure out what works,” Brown said. “The way Arizona deals with heat is very different than the way Chicago or Washington state is going to.”

The Center for Heat Resilient Communities will also have a strong focus on supporting disadvantaged and underserved communities. The Center will be partnering with the Udall Center For Studies In Public Policy’s Native Nations Institute, along with tribal communities, to create heat mitigation and management solutions that respect tribal sovereignty and knowledge.

“This program is really driven by Biden’s justice 40 initiatives, and that really is an effort to put federal funds into marginalized communities,“ said Stephanie Carroll, Associate Professor in the College of Public Health and Associate Research Professor with the Udall Center For Studies In Public Policy and its Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona.

“My goal is to make sure that folks know about tribal communities and tribal nations’ rules as a community.” Carroll said. “I think we’re seeing that knowledge rise, but indigenous peoples here in the US have been marginalized for so long.”

One of Carroll’s primary focuses is the collection, and open access of data for indigenous communities, which means establishing proper attribution protocols, and permissions for use and reuse of data.

Carroll also plans to incorporate indigenous heat mitigation and survival knowledge and education surrounding tribal rights into the Center’s program. By including diverse knowledge and voices, Carrol said the Center for Heat Resilient Communities can produce better science.

One of the eventual goals for researchers is to compile all of the guidance and key lessons learned into publicly available documents on heat.gov where it can be accessed by anyone for use in their own city.

“I think the center will really bring more attention to the fact that we need more heat policy planning and governance and more of these formalized frameworks to really address heat seriously,” Keith said.