Some communities in Harris County are warmer than others because their design encourages the urban heat island effect. The extent that a neighborhood incorporates shade structures or heat-absorbing materials plays a huge role in heating or cooling the surrounding air. With summer temperatures routinely reaching triple digits, any increase in extreme heat due to increased urban development and climate change will negatively impact our quality of life, public health, energy systems, and aging infrastructure.
The on-going COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how this data is more important now than ever. Social distancing and restrictions such as retail establishments, malls and libraries will limit locations where vulnerable populations can seek refuge during extreme heat. People may be confined to homes with no air conditioning and may not have access to other comfortable alternative locations. Populations such as the elderly and those with respiratory conditions have a compounded risk of illness from COVID-19 and extreme heat.
Results/Conclusions
To build resilience to extreme heat, Harris County will partner with City of Houston, HARC and The Nature Conservancy to map and collect essential heat data while educating the general public on heat-health safety during the summer of 2020. Residents of Harris County will be empowered as “citizen scientists, collecting data that will help us understand how the built environment affects temperatures felt across different neighborhoods. Through the identification and mapping of urban heat islands, local health departments can work with communities to strategically mitigate and adapt in areas with the greatest exposure and vulnerability with proven interventions. These interventions include, but are not limited to, cooling centers, light-colored cool roofs and pavement, green roofs, shade trees and evaporative cooling from plants and vegetation.