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Community Resilience in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA: The Analysis of Indoor Heat-related Death and Urban Thermal Environment

Authors:
Qunshan Zhao at University of Glasgow
Qunshan Zhao
Heather Fischer at Arizona State University
Heather Fischer
Wei Luo at National University of Singapore
Wei Luo
Elizabeth Wentz at Arizona State University
Elizabeth Wentz
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Abstract

The SEER (Social, Economic, and Environmental Resilience) Knowledge Exchange is an effort at Arizona State University to integrate resilience data collected from community stakeholders, social media, citizen science, and local and federal authoritative organization to identify and mitigate resilience threats to Maricopa County of Arizona, USA. This paper focuses on a case study of SEER that aims to understand the communitive factors leading to indoor heat-related death in Maricopa County, AZ. The authoritative data we have include daytime land surface temperature and vegetation coverage (NDVI) from remotely sensed images, cooling center locations, demography data from U.S. census, parcel and house age, tree numbers, tree canopy coverage, urban park, as well as the census-tract level indoor heat-related death data. With all of these local and federal authoritative data, we attempt to understand what demographic, residential, and urban infrastructure factors influence the indoor heat-related death and how we can reduce indoor heat-related health issues in Maricopa County by GIS and regression analysis. The research results show a negative relationship between indoor heat-related death and outdoor land surface temperature. More vegetation coverage could cool down the neighborhood and reduce the potential indoor heat-related death. The elderly, the poor, and children are more vulnerable to urban heat. The research results will provide a guideline for the next phase of urban thermal environment enhancement and urban green infrastructure improvement in the Maricopa County, and help mitigate urban heat for vulnerable populations and reduce the happen of indoor heat-related death in the future. In terms of future research, a citizen science project will recruit heat vulnerable population to track their heat exposure both qualitatively and quantitatively. Volunteers will be asked to carry air temperature sensors and GPS sensors with them for a week, combining with a detailed social survey to better understand the complex factors that lead individuals and families to need utility assistance or become more vulnerable to heat. This case study along with other aspects of the Knowledge Exchange is used to characterize the social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities of the individuals in Maricopa County.
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Community Resilience in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA:
The Analysis of Indoor Heat-related Death and Urban Thermal Environment
Qunshan Zhao, Heather Fischer, Wei Luo and Elizabeth A. Wentz
ABSTRACT: The SEER (Social, Economic, and Environmental Resilience) Knowledge
Exchange is an effort at Arizona State University to integrate resilience data collected from
community stakeholders, social media, citizen science, and local and federal authoritative
organization to identify and mitigate resilience threats to Maricopa County of Arizona, USA. This
paper focuses on a case study of SEER that aims to understand the communitive factors leading
to indoor heat-related death in Maricopa County, AZ. The authoritative data we have include
daytime land surface temperature and vegetation coverage (NDVI) from remotely sensed images,
cooling center locations, demography data from U.S. census, parcel and house age, tree numbers,
tree canopy coverage, urban park, as well as the census-tract level indoor heat-related death data.
With all of these local and federal authoritative data, we attempt to understand what demographic,
residential, and urban infrastructure factors influence the indoor heat-related death and how we
can reduce indoor heat-related health issues in Maricopa County by GIS and regression analysis.
The research results show a negative relationship between indoor heat-related death and outdoor
land surface temperature. More vegetation coverage could cool down the neighborhood and
reduce the potential indoor heat-related death. The elderly, the poor, and children are more
vulnerable to urban heat. The research results will provide a guideline for the next phase of urban
thermal environment enhancement and urban green infrastructure improvement in the Maricopa
County, and help mitigate urban heat for vulnerable populations and reduce the happen of indoor
heat-related death in the future. In terms of future research, a citizen science project will recruit
heat vulnerable population to track their heat exposure both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Volunteers will be asked to carry air temperature sensors and GPS sensors with them for a week,
combining with a detailed social survey to better understand the complex factors that lead
individuals and families to need utility assistance or become more vulnerable to heat. This case
study along with other aspects of the Knowledge Exchange is used to characterize the social,
economic, and environmental vulnerabilities of the individuals in Maricopa County.
KEYWORDS: community resilience, indoor heat-related death, authoritative data, GIS
Author names and affiliations:
Qunshan Zhao, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Spatial Analysis Research Center, School of
Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287
Heather Fischer, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Spatial Analysis Research Center, School of
Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287
Wei Luo, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Spatial Analysis Research Center, School of
Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287
Elizabeth A. Wentz, Professor, Spatial Analysis Research Center, School of Geographical
Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287
Understanding the interaction between human activities and physical health under extreme heat environment in Phoenix, Arizona
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2021
  • HEALTH PLACE
Long-term community resilience, which privileges a long view look at chronic issues influencing communities, has begun to draw more attention from city planners, researchers and policymakers. In Phoenix, resilience to heat is both a necessity and a way of life. In this paper, we attempt to understand how residents living in Phoenix experience and behave in an extreme heat environment. To achieve this goal, we introduced a smartphone application (ActivityLog) to study spatio-temporal dynamics of human interaction with urban environments. Compared with traditional paper activity log results we have in this study, the smartphone-based activity log has higher data quality in terms of total number of logs, response rates, accuracy, and connection with GPS and temperature sensors. The research results show that low-income residents in Phoenix mostly stay home during the summer but experience a relatively high indoor temperature due to the lack/low efficiency of air-conditioning (AC) equipment or lack of funds to run AC frequently. Middle-class residents have a better living experience in Phoenix with better mobility with automobiles and good quality of AC. The research results help us better understand user behaviors for daily log activities and how human activities interact with the urban thermal environment, informing further planning policy development. The ActivityLog smartphone application is also presented as an open-source prototype to design a similar urban climate citizen science program in the future.
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