[Durham INC] Durham County Joins NOAA, City of Raleigh and Community Partners to Map Urban Heat Islands

[Jones, Henry R.]

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release                                          Date: 05/13/21
Contact: Public Information Office                   Phone: (919) 560-0000/Fax: (919) 560-0020
E-mail: publicinformationoffice at dconc.gov<mailto:publicinformationoffice at dconc.gov>

Durham County Joins NOAA, City of Raleigh and Community Partners to Map Urban Heat Islands
Volunteers needed to help record data on hot summer day

Durham, N.C. - Durham County Government has partnered with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, the City of Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, the North Carolina Climate Office, and others in a community-led campaign this summer to map the most intensely hot parts of our community.

Residents can sign up now to help with the project at https://climate.ncsu.edu/research/uhi/volunteer/.

Extreme heat kills more Americans than any other weather event<https://www.weather.gov/hazstat/>, but not everyone's risk is the same. Within the same city, some neighborhoods can be up to 20°F hotter<https://nihhis.cpo.noaa.gov/Urban-Heat-Island-Mapping/Understand-Urban-Heat-Islands> than others and, due largely to the practice of historic redlining - discriminatory, race-based lending and housing policies in the 1930s - these hot spots are often home to poorer communities of color.

To learn where action is needed to protect vulnerable populations, now and in the future, NOAA's National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) and partners are launching new community-led campaigns that will map the hottest parts of cities in 11 states across the country this summer. Durham and Raleigh will join Albuquerque, New Mexico; Atlanta. Georgia; New York City, New York; Charleston, South Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; San Diego, California; San Francisco, California; and parts of New Jersey, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Virginia in taking part in this effort during the summer.

"Urban heat islands tend to happen where there are more paved, dark surfaces, like roads and buildings, that absorb and radiate more heat than natural landscapes with trees, grass and natural open spaces," Durham County Sustainability Manager Tobin Freid said. "This leads to heat being radiated back out long after the sun goes down."

Tackling the issue of urban heat islands fits within Durham County Strategic Goal 2 of Health and Well-being for all and Goal 4 of Environmental Stewardship. For the first time, the upcoming edition of the Durham County Community Health Assessment from the Partnership for a Healthy Durham<https://healthydurham.org/health-data> will include a chapter on climate change, with a section dedicated to the impact of extreme heat on our community. This section highlights eight census tracts that have higher risks and exposure to climate impacts due to historic racism that resulted in fewer trees and green spaces, higher percentages of impervious surfaces that retain heat, and higher percentages of people living in poverty without health insurance. Those tracts have 20 percent higher percentage of people of color than the County as a whole.

"Our Nation faces a growing climate crisis that has exacerbated inequities, particularly for the low-income and communities of color," said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo. "The Biden-Harris Administration is ready to take swift action to tackle climate change, and we at the Department of Commerce are so pleased to be partnering with communities around the country toward equitable climate resilience by working with them to design safer, more livable, and healthier cities."

Heat data from the Durham community will be overlapped with demographic information, showing not just where urban heat islands exist, but who they are affecting. This will help the Durham County Department of Public Health and Durham County Department of Social Services target areas of need for services, education, and other resources, and help guide the planning for more sustainable future in the Durham Comprehensive Plan. This additional information will help with alignments of similar strategies with neighboring communities, as outlined in the 2019 Triangle Regional Resilience Assessment.<https://www.tjcog.org/focus-areas-resilience/triangle-regional-resilience-partnership>.

"The project will give us a really good GIS-based map of what the heat looked like on the hottest day in Durham," Freid said. "The data will help guide how we can mitigate the extreme heat effects on our community - by planting more trees, planning more green spaces, using materials that are not as heat absorbent, shading at bus stops, and more. We also want to equip people who are most vulnerable to extreme heat with the knowledge and resources to protect themselves."

Community Volunteers Needed

Using heat sensors mounted on their own cars or bikes, community volunteers, led by a team of local partners in each city participating in the NOAA's NIHHIS heat mapping campaign, will traverse pre-planned routes morning, afternoon, and evening on one of the hottest days of the year. The sensors will record temperature, humidity, time, and the volunteers' location every second. The collected data will be compiled into a detailed temperature map of Raleigh and Durham.

Volunteers are needed as drivers and navigators for the upcoming mapping campaign to help cover the 130 square miles between Raleigh and Durham on one day in June or July. "We will pick the exact date using the state climate office's forecast," Freid said. "This is truly a community-led effort. And for that, we need our residents' help." Volunteers should note that proper COVID-19 protocols will be in place for participants to follow


Volunteer sign up information can be found at the North Carolina State Climate Office's Urban Heat Island Temperature Mapping Campaign website here<https://climate.ncsu.edu/research/uhi/volunteer/>.

Interested individuals or groups can also get more information by contacting Freid at 919-560-7999 or tfreid at dconc.gov<mailto:tfreid at dconc.gov>. Information can also be found when visiting www.greenerdurham.net<http://www.greenerdurham.net>.

###

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.deltaforce.net/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20210513/baf8e42d/attachment.htm>