Planning for urban heat resilience

As average global temperatures rise, heat is increasing. This includes the frequency, length, and intensity of extreme heat events, such as heat waves, and the threat of chronic heat. Heat is already the number one weather-related killer in the United States, and heat impacts are projected to increase as temperatures continue to rise. While extreme heat events are dangerous everywhere, in climates that
are already hot, chronic hot temperatures are an equally dangerous threat, often leading to more heat deaths than recognized extreme heat events. Heat also affects communities’ quality of life, local economic activity, energy and water use, wildlife, vegetation and landscaping, infrastructure, and agriculture. These negative consequences disproportionately affect marginalized residents and those who face systematic inequities such as workplace safety, housing quality, energy affordability, transportation reliability, and
healthcare access.
Both climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect, in which the form and function of the built
environment make urban areas hotter than their rural and natural surroundings, are contributing to these rising heat risks. The way communities are planned, including land uses that shape the built environment, influences both the emission of greenhouse gases that create climate change and the UHI effect. Because planning shapes heat risk, and the profession has a responsibility to foster equity and inclusion, planners will be key practitioners in helping their communities pursue approaches and strategies to achieve
greater heat resiliency.
Urban heat resilience means proactively mitigating and managing urban heat across the many systems and sectors it affects. This PAS Report, Planning for Urban Heat Resilience, seeks to elevate heat as a climate risk in the urban planning profession. The report lays out the complexity of heat, outlines the role of planners in equitably addressing heat, and presents a framework for how planners can mitigate and
manage heat across a variety of plans, policies, and actions.

AN INCREASING, INVISIBLE, AND INEQUITABLE CLIMATE RISK
Hotter temperatures are impacting communities of all sizes and in all regions. Increases in both chronic and acute heat risks are compounding dangers for cities in historically hotter regions and posing new threats for cities in historically more temperate and colder climates. Cities in historically colder regions are often less prepared for heat, as they have lower adoption rates of indoor cooling and less experience managing extreme heat events. In areas with higher humidity, even small temperature increases can
increase the danger to human health.
While communities everywhere are getting hotter, heat risks are unevenly and inequitably distributed. This report explains why some neighborhoods are consistently hotter than others, including districts with a history of redlining or communities of mostly low-income or minority residents. Past planning decisions played a role in creating and furthering these disparities. Certain community members.

source:
https://planning-org-uploaded-media.s3.amazonaws.com/publication/download_pdf/PAS-Report-600-r1.pdf