Local Extreme Heat Planning: an Interactive Tool to Examine a Heat Vulnerability Index for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

• Published in: Journal of urban health Vol. 97; no. 4; pp. 519 - 528
• Main Authors: Hammer, Jason, Ruggieri, Dominique G., Thomas, Chad, Caum, Jessica
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-08-2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Cardiovascular disease; Cities; City Planning - methods; Climate change; Diabetes; Disease control; Environmental hazards; Epidemiology; Ethnicity; Extreme heat; Extreme Heat - adverse effects; Health Informatics; Heat; Humans; Identification methods; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Morbidity; Mortality; Philadelphia; Planning; Population; Poverty; Public Health; Social isolation; Sociodemographics; Target recognition; Urban areas; Urban heat islands; Vulnerable Populations; Websites; Philadelphia; Cities; Climate change; Built environment; Extreme heat; Urban health; Mapping tools
• ISSN: 1099-3460; 1468-2869
• DOI: 10.1007/s11524-020-00443-9

Exposure to extreme heat contributes to high morbidity and mortality relative to other climate hazards. The city of Philadelphia, PA is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of extreme heat, due to the urban heat island effect and high prevalence of sensitive populations. We developed a heat vulnerability index, which identified priority areas that are most at-risk of experiencing adverse heat-related health outcomes and in need of preparedness and mitigation interventions. An interactive website was created to display the maps and allow the public to navigate the data with links to potential resources for relief from extreme heat days. Such methods can be adapted for other cities that wish to identify and target long-term priority areas.