Where Will Cooling Centers Improve Urban Heat Health?

Extreme heat events, or heat waves, are on the rise and becoming more intense according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These events are more than just an annoyance and can lead to illness and death, particularly among vulnerable populations including seniors and young people. The EPA also states prolonged exposure to these heat events can lead to other impacts such as damaging crops or killing livestock. Climate resilience planning is one approach to preparing for and mitigating the effects of extreme heat. Climate resilience planning in local communities involves several steps including assessing vulnerability and risk. © 2024 Adobe Stock. All rights reserved. During an extreme heat event it is vital to the health of your community to have publicly accessible air-conditioned areas where people can go to cool down. These centers are especially important for vulnerable populations at risk of heat-related illnesses, such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke, which can be fatal. Designating buildings like public libraries, community centers, senior centers and police stations as air conditioned cooling centers and making the community aware of these resources is a key strategy in improving your community's climate resilience. This layer displays census tracts that are ranked according to which would benefit most to improving access to cooling centers. The ranking is based upon a composite index built with the following attributes: High Summer Average Surface Temperature (°F) Percent of Population that is 65 Years and Over (%) Percent of Households with No Vehicle Available (%) These attribute links take you to the original data sources. Preprocessing was needed to prepare many of these inputs for inclusion in our index. The links are provided for reference only. This layer is one of a series developed to support local climate resilience planning. Intended as planning tools for policy makers, climate resilience planners, and community members, these layers highlight areas of the community that are most likely to benefit from the resilience intervention the layer supports. Each layer focuses on one specific heat resilience intervention intended to help mitigate against the climate hazard. Improving access to cooling centers is a great way to support your vulnerable community members and could be a life saving resource. For more information on extreme heat please visit the heat.gov website, and for resources about how to set up a cooling center, the State of California - Health and Human Services Agency provides these resources. The heat resilience index (HRI) and methodology were developed in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the UC Davis, Department of Public Health. Layers in the Extreme Heat hazard intervention series include Where Will a Buddy Program Improve Urban Heat Health? Where Will Tree Planting Improve Urban Heat Health? Where Will Cooling Centers Improve Urban Heat Health? Did you know you can build your own climate resilience index or use ours and customize it? The Customize a climate resilience index Tutorial provides more information on the index and also walks you through steps for taking our index and customizing it to your needs so you can create intervention maps better suited to your location and sourced from your own higher resolution data. For more information about how Esri enriched the census tracts with exposure, demographic, and environmental data to create composite indices called intervention indices, please read this technical reference. Read these blogs for more information and workflows: Tools for Building Community Climate Resilience Build a Heat Risk Index for Local Climate Planning: Part 1 of 3 Build a Heat Risk Index for Local Climate Planning: Part 2 of 3 Build a Heat Risk Index for Local Climate Planning: Part 3 of 3 This feature layer was created from the Climate Resilience Planning Census Tracts hosted feature layer view and is one of 18 similar intervention layers, all of which can be found in ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World.据美国环境保护署（U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA）称，极端高温事件（即热浪）的发生频率正不断上升，强度也持续加剧。此类事件绝非仅仅令人不适，更可能引发疾病甚至死亡，尤其对老年人、儿童等脆弱群体影响尤甚。EPA还指出，长期暴露于极端高温环境还会带来其他影响，例如损毁农作物、导致牲畜死亡。 气候韧性规划是应对并减轻极端高温影响的有效途径之一。地方社区的气候韧性规划包含多个步骤，其中就包括脆弱性与风险评估。© 2024 Adobe Stock. 保留所有权利。 在极端高温事件期间，设置面向公众开放的空调降温场所，供民众前往避暑，对社区民众的健康至关重要。这类降温中心对易出现热相关疾病（如热痉挛、热衰竭和可致命的热中风）的脆弱群体尤为关键。将公共图书馆、社区中心、老年活动中心及警察局等建筑指定为空调降温场所，并向社区普及这类资源的信息，是提升社区气候韧性的核心策略之一。 本图层展示了按照“改善降温中心可达性的受益程度”进行排序的人口普查分区。该排序基于一项综合指数，其构建采用了以下指标：夏季平均地表高温（华氏度）、65岁及以上人口占比（%）、无家用汽车的家庭占比（%）。 以下链接可跳转至各指标对应的原始数据源。为将这些输入数据纳入综合指数，我们需要对多数数据进行预处理。此处链接仅作参考用途。 本图层是为支持地方气候韧性规划而开发的系列图层之一。这类图层旨在为政策制定者、气候韧性规划人员及社区居民提供规划工具，重点标注出社区中最能从该图层所支持的韧性干预措施中获益的区域。每个图层均聚焦于一项特定的高温韧性干预措施，以助力缓解气候灾害带来的影响。改善降温中心的可达性，是帮扶社区脆弱群体的有效方式，甚至可成为挽救生命的资源。 如需了解更多极端高温相关信息，请访问heat.gov官网；若需获取设立降温中心的相关资源，可参考加利福尼亚州卫生与人类服务部提供的相关资料。本高温韧性指数（Heat Resilience Index, HRI）及其编制方法，是与美国疾病控制与预防中心（U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC）以及加州大学戴维斯分校公共卫生系合作开发的。 极端高温灾害干预系列图层包括：《伙伴计划将在何处改善城市高温健康状况？》、《植树造林将在何处改善城市高温健康状况？》、《降温中心将在何处改善城市高温健康状况？》。 您是否知晓，您可以自行构建气候韧性指数，或是使用我们的指数并进行自定义调整？《自定义气候韧性指数教程》将为您详细介绍该指数的相关信息，并指导您如何基于我们的指数进行自定义修改，以打造更贴合您所在地区、可使用更高分辨率本地数据的干预措施地图。 如需了解Esri如何通过暴露度、人口统计及环境数据丰富人口普查分区信息，以构建名为干预指数的综合指标，请查阅此技术参考文档。 请阅读以下博客以获取更多信息及工作流： 《构建社区气候韧性的工具》 《构建地方气候规划用高温风险指数：第1部分（共3部分）》 《构建地方气候规划用高温风险指数：第2部分（共3部分）》 《构建地方气候规划用高温风险指数：第3部分（共3部分）》 本要素图层源自“气候韧性规划人口普查分区”托管要素图层视图，是18个同类干预图层之一，所有此类图层均可在ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World中获取。