CPO-funded American Planning Association Book: Planning for Urban Heat Resilience

NOAA/NIHHIS Extreme Heat Risk Initiative grantees, Drs. Ladd Keith—a Principal Investigator of Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS), a NOAA RISA team, (University of Arizona)—and Sarah Meerow (Arizona State University), have written a first-of-its-kind guidebook for urban planners to manage and mitigate urban heat, published by the American Planning Association (APA). The book will be part of the PAS Report series, which has, for the past 70+ years, offered "comprehensive guidance on important planning issues and innovative practices".

In the guide, the fundamentals of understanding Urban Heat Islands are addressed in an approachable way, followed by the exposition of an urban heat resilience framework for heat management and mitigation. A companion workbook on the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard for Heat (PIRSH) will also be offered as a tool to get communities started thinking through the many different ways heat resilience can be built into existing plans and policies.

For more information on the Extreme Heat Risk Initiative and these projects, visit the NIHHIS website. 

For more information, contact Hunter Jones.