City-University Partnerships to Reduce Thermal Vulnerability: a living labs approach for more thermally-comfortable and equitable communities
Abstract
Extreme thermal events are a growing urban challenge. City officials have responded with a variety of policies to reduce extreme heat. At the other end of the thermal spectrum, extreme cold is an existing challenge with research showing that cold-related mortality is greater to or equal that of extreme heat. Yet, few cities have collaboratively addressed the problem of thermal vulnerability in a systematic way. Managing thermal extremes may likely require collaboration between residents, public officials, and researchers. In fall 2017, researchers from two universities partnered with local governments in Tempe, AZ and Buffalo, NY. This city-university and city-city partnership resulted in a codesigned city-university action-research agenda. Work from this initial project then led to a pilot of four living lab activities in a subsequent summer in Tempe, AZ. During that summer, the team conducted a citywide heat and health survey to serve as a baseline for broad city policies around extreme heat for vulnerable individuals and communities. Complementing the survey, we deployed a neighborhood microclimate assessment for a select number of parks, playspaces, multiuse paths, and sidewalks in one Tempe neighborhood. This was followed with one participatory heat assessment event. All the data from the summer activities were then synthesized to inform a climate action co-design workshop in the subsequent fall. The workshop had the goal of co-producing policy and design solutions with residents and city officials. The citywide survey serves to sample all Tempe neighborhoods views on heat and health, while the assessments are intended to test the effectiveness of a pilot neighborhood scale living labs-policy approach to inform climate policy and actions. For the session, we will discuss the results of this living labs approach with a focus on barriers, opportunities, and lessons to inform paths toward creating more thermally-comfortable and equitable communities.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMGH34A..02C
- Keywords:
-
- 0240 Public health;
- GEOHEALTH;
- 1630 Impacts of global change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 4313 Extreme events;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4330 Vulnerability;
- NATURAL HAZARDS