Where Will Tree Planting 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. It is a fact that trees can lower the surrounding air temperature through evapotranspiration, providing shade, and taking up space that might otherwise be converted to pavement. Lots of pavement, blacktop roads, and concrete buildings absorb the sun's heat and radiate that heat into the surrounding air. This is especially evident in highly developed urban areas which can get up to 20 degrees warmer than surrounding vegetated areas. These hot zones are referred to as Urban Heat Islands. One way to reduce the warmer temperatures in urban areas is to plant trees and other vegetation. This layer displays census tracts that are ranked according to which would benefit most from tree planting. The ranking is based upon a composite index built with the following attributes: High Summer Average Surface Temperature (°F) Percent of Tract Covered by Tree Canopy (%) Population Density (ppl/km2) 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 map supports. Each layer focuses on one specific heat resilience intervention intended to help mitigate against the climate hazard. Planting trees along streets and over dark surfaces in urban areas is proven to reduce air temperature which helps to mitigate the impacts of urban heat islands. For more resources on extreme heat visit heat.gov where you can learn about the impacts of tree planting campaigns. 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. 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.美国环境保护署（U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA）指出，极端高温事件（即热浪）的发生频次正逐年攀升，强度亦持续增强。这类事件绝非仅会带来不便，更可能引发疾病乃至死亡，老年群体与青年群体等脆弱人群受影响尤甚。美国环保署同时提及，长期暴露于极端高温环境还会引发一系列其他负面影响，例如破坏农作物、导致牲畜死亡。 气候韧性规划是应对并缓解极端高温影响的有效路径之一。地方社区的气候韧性规划包含多个核心环节，其中就包括脆弱性评估与风险研判。© 2024 Adobe Stock。保留所有权利。 众所周知，树木可通过蒸散作用（evapotranspiration）降低周边气温，同时提供树荫，还能占据原本可能被铺筑为路面的土地。大量沥青路面、柏油道路以及混凝土建筑会吸收太阳热量，并将其辐射至周边空气中。这一现象在高度开发的城区尤为显著，此类区域的气温可比周边植被覆盖区域高出最高20华氏度。这类高温区域被称为城市热岛（Urban Heat Islands）。 降低城区气温的可行手段之一便是种植树木与其他植被。本图层展示了按植树造林获益程度从高到低排序的人口普查分区（census tracts），排序依据为一项综合指数，该指数由以下属性构建而成：夏季地表平均高温（华氏度）、普查区域树木冠层覆盖率（百分比）、人口密度（人/平方公里）。点击上述属性链接即可跳转至原始数据源。为将各类输入数据纳入本指数，需完成预处理工作。此处提供的链接仅作参考之用。 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。这些图层旨在为政策制定者、气候韧性规划人员以及社区成员提供规划工具，重点标注社区中最能从本地图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影响。研究证实，在城区沿街以及深色铺装区域周边植树，可有效降低气温，从而缓解城市热岛效应带来的影响。如需获取更多极端高温相关资源，请访问heat.gov，在此可了解植树造林活动带来的多重影响。 本高温韧性指数（Heat Resilience Index, HRI）及相关方法体系由美国疾病控制与预防中心（U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC）与加州大学戴维斯分校公共卫生系合作开发。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？》。 您是否可以构建属于自己的气候韧性指数，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》将提供更多关于该指数的相关信息，并指导您如何对我们的指数进行自定义调整，以适配您的具体需求，从而创建更贴合本地场景、可使用您所提供的高分辨率数据的干预措施地图。如需了解Esri如何通过暴露度、人口统计与环境数据丰富普查区域信息，以构建名为“干预指数”的综合指数，请参阅该技术参考文档。 本要素图层源自“气候韧性规划普查区域”托管要素图层视图，属于18个同类干预图层之一，所有这些图层均可在ArcGIS世界生活地图集（ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World）中找到。