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Cool Neighborhoods NYC
June 14, 2017
New York City Mayor de Blasio launched Cool Neighborhoods NYC in June 2017. This $106 million program is designed to minimize the effects of extreme heat on the city by implementing projects such as cool roofs, city-wide tree plantings, and climate risk training for home health aides, among others. The comprehensive resilience program aims to reduce heat-related health impacts by lowering temperatures in heat-vulnerable neighborhoods and strengthening social networks as well. Cool Neighborhoods NYC is led by the Mayor’s Office of Recovery & Resiliency and will be implemented in partnerships with NYC Parks, the Health Department, Small Business Services, Emergency Management, and members of the private sector.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Louisville, Kentucky Cool Roof Rebates
March 2017
In 2016, the Louisville Office of Sustainability commissioned a study from Georgia Tech’s Urban Climate Lab to map the hottest areas of the city. The study revealed that not only was Louisville’s urban heat island one of the most severe in the nation, but the hottest areas of the city were, also where the most vulnerable frontline communities were located. The study recommended a variety of interventions, including policies promoting cool surfaces, increased vegetation, and energy efficiency strategies, with each of the interventions combining to be greater than the sum of each when deployed in the same area. One of the interventions that Louisville implemented was a rebate for cool roofs that property owners installed on their buildings. In order to ensure that some of the voluntary funding was allocated for low-income, more vulnerable areas, the office designated 70% of the funding to go to neighborhoods identified in the study as having the most severe heat islands. While rebates can be difficult for low-income property owners, the techniques used to target the program to areas of the highest need can be replicated in other places for grants or no-interest loans. The program was funded through a partnership with Louisville’s energy utility.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Harlem Heat Project, New York City
2016
The Harlem Heat Project is a community-based initiative that began in New York City in the summer of 2016. It combines crowd-sourcing, data reporting, and narrative journalism to tell the story or urban heat islands in New York City. Non-profit journalism and community-based organizations came together to provide low-cost heat sensors to homeowners in "heat-vulnerable" areas of Harlem in New York City. The data was used to tell the story of disproportionate risks to extreme heat for lower-income and communities of color as a result of increasing temperatures from climate change.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Case Study: Scottsdale, Arizona’s Cool Roofs Workshop
February 23, 2017
In 2015, the City of Scottsdale, Arizona hosted a Cool Roof workshop series, to promote the use of cool roofs as a strategy for increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and reducing urban heat islands. Cool roofs are designed to reflect sunlight and heat away from a building, reducing roof temperatures and urban heat islands. Cool roofs also reduce energy use, ambient air temperature, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and improve human health and comfort. [ref title=""]US Environmental Protection Agency, Using Cool Roofs to Reduce Heat Islands, available at https://www.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Achieving Urban Resilience: Washington D.C.
December 12, 2016
Achieving Urban Resilience illustrates the environmental, health and economic benefits that Washington, D. C. could gain from citywide adoption of smart surface technologies such as cool roofs, green roofs, solar PV, porous pavements, bio-retention, rainwater harvesting, reflective pavements, permeable pavements, and urban trees. The report quantifies the benefits of adopting cost-effective strategies to manage sun and rainfall at a city level, and documents how the District could save at least $5 billion over 40 years with smart surface strategies.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Greg Kats, Keith Glassbrook
Resource Category: Planning
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Louisville Urban Heat Management Study
April 2016
The Louisville, Kentucky Urban Heat Management Study assesses the degree to which the Louisville Metro area is warming as a result of urban development and deforestation. The first of its kind by a major U.S. city, this report educates neighborhood and city decision makers on the impacts that rising temperatures have on public health, and provides recommendations for addressing Louisville’s urban heat problem.
Resource Category: Assessments
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Under 1 Roof Initiative, San Antonio, Texas
2016
The Under 1 Roof Initiative is an example of local funding programs that create incentives for residents to retrofit vulnerable homes to prepare for climate change impacts like urban heat. In 2016, San Antonio launched the Under 1 Roof Initiative to replace old roofs with free, energy-efficient cool roofs. Under 1 Roof distributes funds through the city’s Neighborhood Housing Service (NHS) to replace the roofs of qualifying applicants, including the elderly, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and low-income residents. Under a partnership between the municipal utility and the city, households that do not qualify for direct funding from the NHS remain eligible to receive rebates for self-installed cool roofs. In 2018, San Antonio’s city council approved a $2.25 million budget to expand the Under 1 Roof Initiative to five other districts in the city.
Resource Category: Funding
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Seattle Extreme Heat Scenario-Based Pilot-Project in Frontline Communities - Racial Equity Mini Evaluation
December 2015
The Seattle, Washington Extreme Heat Scenario-Based Pilot-Project was commissioned by the City of Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment, funded in part by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, and conducted by Equity Matters. It was commissioned as a pilot program to understand how municipal agencies, including Public Health - Seattle and King County, and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, can better support low-income communities and communities of color during extreme heat events.
Resource Category: Planning
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Heat in U.S. Prisons and Jails: Corrections and the Challenge of Climate Change
August 31, 2015
This paper from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law addresses how increased temperatures and heat waves caused by climate change affect prisons, jails, and their staff and inmate populations. Recommendations are offered for what correctional departments can do to prepare for greater heat and minimize the dangers it poses.
Resource Category: Assessments
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Heat and Social Inequity in the United States
August 2015
This interactive website provides a series of maps depicting the vulnerability of each county in the U.S. to heat as a result of climate change. Drawing on global climate models and socioeconomic metrics, these maps allow for county-level analysis of heat risk and can be used to bolster community engagement and preparedness planning.
Resource Category: Data and tools
