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Climate Adaptation Partnerships Program

Raleigh/Durham NIHHIS Urban Heat Mapping Campaign follow-up

CAP Team (s):

C3HE (Carolinas Collaborative on Climate Health and Equity)

Years Active (s):

2021 –
2022

Principal Investigator (s):

Max Cawley

Co-Investigator (s):

Max Cawley, Kathie Dello

Project Supporters:

NOAA National Weather Service (NWS), City of Raleigh, Durham County, Activate Good, North Carolina State Climate Office, NC Museum of Natural History

Project Contact:

State/Locations:

North Carolina

Research Partners:

University/Institute, Local Government, NOAA Climate Program Office (CPO), NOAA National Weather Service (NWS)

End User / Practitioner Partners:

Local Community, Local Government, State/Territory Government, Planners, Underserved and Disadvantaged Communities, Engineers, Emergency Management, NOAA

Deliverables:

Maps, webinars, data hackathons, decision support tools, integration into policy and planning

Adaptation:

Advance understanding, Train professionals, Strengthen relationships & networks, Support knowledge exchange, Inform plans & policies

Categories:

Diversity, Equity, extreme events, Heat, Human Health, Infrastructure, Justice, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, natural hazards, Recreation, tourism, Transportation, Urban

Geographic Scope:

Research Triangle, NC

Geographic Communities Benefited:

Raleigh, NC and Durham, NC

Non-Geographic Underserved Communities Benefited:

urban community groups from historically redlined neighborhoods in Durham

Partners hosted a public webinar to disseminate results from the 2021 HeatWatch Campaign, featuring short talks, reflections, and initial analysis of data by partners from MLS, Activate Good, CAPA Strategies, North Carolina State Climate Office (NCSCO), Durham County, and City of Raleigh. New data and maps created by the campaign were disseminated and are available on the NCSCO webpage, and both city webpages for public use. Partners proactively worked with local neighborhoods to organize smaller-scale community-engaged meetings, listening sessions, and interactive data analysis with collaborators across the study area. This included more localized dissemination of results at neighborhood association and commission meetings, aimed at giving residents and community leaders a deeper dive and further access to data about the places that they live, as well as building understanding, capacity and trust for collaboration and future partnership and increasing efficacy and confidence in using tools and understanding impacts revealed by the data.
The Raleigh/Durham Urban Heat Island team also worked with DataWorks NC to reanalyze and interpolate data into Durham’s Neighborhood Compass for further public access. Durham partners also reanalyzed data for Durham County’s website, presented data to the County Commissioners and to City Council, and began incorporating data into the 2023 Community Health Assessment. Presentations were given to Raleigh neighborhood organizations. A public data hackathon using the heat data collected was conducted on 4/23 at Morehead Planetarium at the University of North Carolina. Durham’s Neighborhood Improvement Service (NIS) has begun using maps and data to continue to engage neighborhoods, advocates, and residents in education and in bi-directional approaches to understanding priorities for heat mitigation in the future into their neighborhood forums. In Raleigh, the data were reanalyzed into new publicly-available interactive GIS maps, and placed onto the City’s new webpage about urban heat. Both cities involved in the campaign continue to coordinate with urban forestry, parks, data and GIS departments, and local health to continue to develop effective public messaging, outreach, and mitigation strategies. Decision-makers and planning departments in both cities have been briefed, and are considering these data in future planning decisions.

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