Following a workshop with the Southern California Resilience Initiative (SCRI), funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, CRCL partnered with LA County to prepare “Heat Vulnerability in Los Angeles County Resource and Methodology Assessment.” In support research and planning that advances resilience and climate adaptation planning around extreme heat. In the development of the County’s OurCounty Sustainability Plan, the County established ambitious targets around converting heat trapping surfaces to cool or green surface, reducing the number of heat stress emergency department visits, and increasing the urban tree canopy cover. In addition, the County is pursuing a holistic climate vulnerability assessment. In service of these efforts, the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes assessed existing climate studies in the region and global best practices in order to inform the methodology used by the County in their broader climate adaptation planning effort.
In support of this work, CRCL looked across nine studies and tools that define and illustrate heat vulnerability in Los Angeles and Southern California - from State-wide climate projections prepared as a part of the Fourth Climate Assessment and Cal Adapt platform to visualization and mapping tools like the California Healthy Places Index and the California Heat Assessment Tool. Then, we evaluated them for their limitations and strengths in view of the targets set by the County in the OurCounty plan. CRCL also prepared case studies of global best practices in defining and studying heat vulnerability and prepared recommendations for the methodologies that the County might pursue in confirming, refining, and meeting the targets and actions identified in their planning efforts.
