Op-Ed: Cities must plan for heat resilience now

Daytime temperatures during the Pacific Northwest heatwave. Image source: climate.gov

With the increased attention to extreme heat events after the U.S. Southwest and then U.S. Pacific Northwest and Canadian heatwaves in June 2021, I wrote an op-ed piece on the urgent need to plan for heat resilience with Sara Meerow for the Reuters Thomson Foundation. A few short exceprts:

Summer just started in the Northern Hemisphere, but cities everywhere have already been impacted by unprecedented extreme heat and must plan for heat resilience now.

Urban planners and designers largely work in the area of reducing exposure to heat, while public health and emergency management focus on heat management. Cities should coordinate these strategies and ensure they are equitably distributed according to heat risk to avoid worst-case scenarios.

Read the full op-ed piece: Cities must plan for heat resilience now.