Extreme Heat Solutions
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Extreme Heat Solutions
Heat as a Public Health Emergency
Extreme heat is increasingly recognized as a major public health threat, especially in cities where pavement, buildings, traffic, and limited tree cover can create dangerous urban heat islands. Heat waves can cause illness, death, lost sleep, reduced mobility, and lower productivity, while placing the greatest burden on older adults, children, outdoor workers, people with disabilities, people without housing, and low-income residents without reliable cooling.
Public health agencies and climate organizations emphasize that heat protection requires planning before disasters strike. Heat-health action plans, early warnings, cooling centers, public outreach, medical guidance, and community check-ins can reduce deaths and help residents respond before temperatures become life-threatening.
Cooling Cities with Trees, Shade, and Green Infrastructure
Urban greening is one of the most important long-term strategies for reducing heat exposure. Trees cool streets through shade and evapotranspiration, while parks, green corridors, schoolyard forests, green roofs, and restored natural areas can lower surrounding temperatures and make neighborhoods more livable.
Several city programs focus on expanding tree canopy, creating shaded walking routes, improving parks, and replacing heat-trapping asphalt with vegetation. These approaches are especially important in historically marginalized neighborhoods, where heat islands are often more severe because of fewer trees, more pavement, and less access to cooling resources.
Cool Roofs, Cool Pavements, and Smart Surfaces
Cool roofs use reflective materials or coatings to absorb less heat from the sun. They can reduce indoor temperatures, lower energy demand, improve sleep, and protect people in homes, schools, clinics, and apartments without air conditioning. Programs in New York City, India, Africa, and other regions show that reflective roofs can be a practical and relatively low-cost way to reduce heat exposure.
Cool pavements, permeable surfaces, green roofs, reflective materials, and other “smart surfaces” can also reduce surface temperatures in streets, parking lots, and neighborhoods. These strategies work best when combined with trees, shade structures, energy-efficient buildings, and neighborhood-scale planning.
Cooling Centers, Climate Shelters, and Resilience Hubs
Cooling centers and climate shelters provide safe indoor spaces during dangerous heat. Libraries, schools, community centers, museums, public buildings, and resilience hubs can offer cooling, water, charging, information, and emergency support. Cities such as Barcelona, Phoenix, Philadelphia, New York, Austin, Portland, and others have developed cooling networks to protect residents during heat emergencies.
Research shows that cooling centers are most effective when people know about them and can reach them. Transportation, accessibility, hours of operation, trust, neighborhood location, disability access, and proximity to vulnerable residents all affect whether people use cooling centers when they need them most.
Heat Mapping and Data-Driven Planning
Heat mapping helps cities identify the hottest blocks and neighborhoods. Satellite data, sensors, citizen-science campaigns, geospatial analysis, and artificial intelligence can reveal large temperature differences within the same city. These tools help local governments decide where to plant trees, add shade, open cooling centers, install cool roofs, or target outreach.
High-resolution heat maps are especially useful for equity-focused planning. They can show where heat overlaps with poverty, older housing, low tree canopy, transit dependence, health vulnerability, or limited access to air conditioning.
Worker Protections and Heat-Safe Jobs
Extreme heat is a serious workplace hazard for farmworkers, construction workers, delivery workers, warehouse workers, kitchen workers, manufacturing workers, and many others. Worker safety programs emphasize water, rest, shade, acclimatization, training, emergency response, and enforceable heat illness prevention standards.
California, Oregon, Washington, and other jurisdictions provide examples of heat safety rules for outdoor workers, while public health and labor groups are calling for stronger protections for both outdoor and indoor workers as temperatures rise.
Protecting Schools, Children, Older Adults, and Vulnerable Communities
Children are especially vulnerable to extreme heat because high temperatures can affect health, learning, play, and development. School heat solutions include HVAC upgrades, shaded playgrounds, green schoolyards, hydration access, emergency protocols, and replacing asphalt with trees and gardens.
Older adults and people with disabilities also need targeted support, including accessible cooling centers, wellness checks, backup power, caregiver communication, transportation, medication review, and clear emergency alerts. Housing policy, weatherization, utility assistance, and tenant protections can reduce dangerous indoor heat for people who cannot afford cooling.
Community-Based Heat Resilience
Community-based heat resilience depends on trusted local institutions and neighborhood leadership. Libraries, churches, schools, nonprofits, mutual aid groups, public health workers, and local governments can help distribute cooling kits, check on neighbors, provide water, share alerts, and identify residents who need extra support.
Heat drills and tabletop exercises allow cities to test plans before emergencies occur. These rehearsals can reveal gaps in transportation, communication, cooling-center operations, outreach to older residents, and emergency coordination.
Conclusion
Extreme heat solutions work best when they combine immediate lifesaving actions with long-term changes to buildings, streets, schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods. Cooling centers, heat alerts, hydration, outreach, and worker protections can save lives during heat waves, while trees, cool roofs, green infrastructure, smart surfaces, and equitable planning can reduce heat exposure over time.
The most effective heat strategies focus on the people most at risk. By treating shade, cooling access, heat mapping, safe housing, and worker protection as essential public infrastructure, communities can adapt to a hotter climate while improving health, equity, and resilience.
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Extreme Heat Solutions
Adapting to the heat: four ideas from European cities
| Ajit Niranjan | The Guardian | June 26 2026
Cities are turning public buildings into climate shelters, checking on older residents, adding shade, greening streets, and encouraging reflective building designs to reduce deadly heat exposure.
Urgent Call to Action: Protecting Health Through Energy Efficiency, Nature-Based Solutions and Heat–Health Action Plans
| UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre | UNEP CCC | June 26 2026
This call to action frames extreme heat as a public health emergency and promotes energy efficiency, nature-based cooling, and heat-health action plans as practical solutions.
World Cup puts urban heat risk in the spotlight
| Reuters | Reuters | June 16 2026
Major sporting events are forcing cities to plan for shade, water, reflective surfaces, cooling shelters, and better heat-risk mapping for crowds and residents.
Urban Heat Islands & Low-Cost Cooling Solutions
| Frost & Sullivan Institute | Frost & Sullivan Institute | June 8 2026
This article highlights low-cost ways to cool neighborhoods, including shade structures, cool roofs, urban greening, reflective materials, and targeted support for vulnerable communities.
Better sleep, improved health, happier people: how 'cool roofs' could help millions avoid deadly heat
| Sarah Johnson | The Guardian | June 1 2026
Reflective roof paint projects in Africa show how cool roofs can lower indoor temperatures, improve sleep, and protect people in homes without air conditioning.
Cities are rehearsing for deadly heat. Will it help when disaster comes?
| Natalie Donback | Grist | May 5 2026
Cities are using heat drills and tabletop exercises to test cooling centers, outreach systems, emergency coordination, and services for vulnerable residents before heat waves strike.
'Heat Batteries' Leave Some City Blocks Scorched
| Kiley Price | Inside Climate News | April 14 2026
Urban materials that store heat can make some blocks dangerously hot, while trees, green space, cool roofs, and reflective pavement can reduce neighborhood heat exposure.
Amravati Makes Cool Roofs Mandatory to Beat Extreme Heat
| Staff | Times of India | March 28 2026
Amravati adopted cool-roof bylaws requiring reflective roofs on new public, commercial, and large residential buildings while offering tax rebates for retrofits.
Heat Stress and Urban Resilience: Alternative Cooling Strategies to Combat Extreme Heat in the Urban Environment
This policy brief looks beyond air-conditioned cooling centers to mobile shade, cool rooms, misting, reflective materials, community cooling, and neighborhood-scale heat resilience.
Thermal Comfort Path Planning Tool for Urban Mobility in Austin, Texas
| Aditya Patel et al. | arXiv | January 29 2026
Researchers developed a walking and biking route planner that helps people choose cooler, more shaded paths during extreme heat.
Extreme Heat and the Changing Landscape of Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Standards
| American Bar Association | ABA | January 26 2026
This legal analysis explains how worker heat standards are evolving and why employers may need stronger water, rest, shade, and heat illness prevention plans.
Cool rooms for indoor heat resilience
| Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | LBNL | January 2026
Researchers studied “cool rooms” as a household heat-resilience strategy using passive and low-power cooling to protect people during dangerous indoor heat.
Heat and health
| World Health Organization | WHO | April 28 2026
WHO explains heat-health risks and the need for early warning systems, public health planning, cooling access, hydration, and protection for vulnerable groups.
How to adapt your city to extreme heat
| C40 Knowledge Hub | C40 Cities | 2026
C40 summarizes city heat strategies including cool roofs, cool pavements, shade, vegetation, heat-health warning systems, cooling centers, and emergency outreach.
Extreme heat - Solutions for confronting climate disasters
| WIPO | World Intellectual Property Organization | 2026
This overview catalogs technologies and policies for extreme heat, including cool roofs, permeable pavement, misting, wearable worker sensors, early warnings, and heat mapping.
Urban Heat Risk Management Resource Package
| Making Cities Resilient 2030 | UNDRR | 2026
This resource package helps local governments plan heat-risk governance, early warnings, cooling infrastructure, urban greening, public communication, and emergency response.
Heat Stress and Urban Resilience: Alternative Cooling Strategies to Combat Extreme Heat in the Urban Environment
| Dorit Aviv et al. | Heat Health Information Network | 2026
The report evaluates practical cooling approaches such as shade structures, cooling centers, cool rooms, reflective materials, and community-based interventions.
A healthy cities agenda for extreme heat adaptation in urban environments
| A. Nasari et al. | PMC | 2026
This research article outlines an urban health agenda for heat adaptation, emphasizing prevention, planning, green infrastructure, cooling access, and equitable neighborhood design.
Extreme Heat is Killing America's Workers
| Groundwork Collaborative | Groundwork Collaborative | May 5 2026
The report argues for stronger workplace heat protections, including enforceable standards, rest breaks, water, shade, and protections for indoor and outdoor workers.
Cities Battle Urban Heat - Green Solutions for a Warming Climate
| Climate Adaptation Platform | Climate Adaptation Platform | April 9 2026
This article reviews green solutions for urban heat, including tree canopy, parks, heat mapping, and infrastructure choices that reduce urban heat islands.
Reduce Heat Islands
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | April 7 2026
EPA explains how green infrastructure, shade trees, vegetation, reflective surfaces, and cooling-oriented stormwater design can help reduce heat islands.
Planning for Cooler Cities: A Multimodal AI Framework for Predicting and Mitigating Urban Heat Stress through Urban Landscape Transformation
| Shengao Yi et al. | arXiv | July 30 2025
Researchers describe an AI framework for mapping heat stress and testing landscape changes such as replacing impervious surfaces with tree canopy.
Cool roofs, tree planting help cities fight urban heat waves
| Ian Smith and Lucy Hutyra | Finance & Commerce | July 23 2025
This article explains how cities can combine cool roofs and tree planting to reduce heat exposure, especially in vulnerable neighborhoods.
Cities Are Heating Up. Better Infrastructure Can Cool Them Down.
WRI describes how cool roofs, cool pavements, trees, shade structures, green roofs, and greenspace can reduce urban heat and protect public health.
Beating the Heat: A 2025 Heat Policy Agenda
| Environmental and Energy Study Institute | EESI | June 17 2025
This briefing highlights policy tools for heat resilience, including cooling centers, federal support, worker safety, public health planning, and low-income cooling assistance.
How extreme heat tests public health and safety
| Gloria Dickie | Reuters | June 24 2025
Reuters reviews public health actions during heat waves, including warnings, cooling centers, hydration, relaxed transit access, and protections for outdoor workers.
NYC buildings trap heat. 'Cool roofs' program aims to lower temperatures
| Eliza Fawcett | Healthbeat | June 25 2025
New York City’s cool-roofs program shows how reflective coatings can reduce indoor heat in buildings, especially where residents lack air conditioning.
States Must Lead the Way To Protect Workers From Extreme Heat
| Maureen Coffey | Center for American Progress | May 20 2025
This article argues that states should adopt heat-safety rules requiring shade, water, rest breaks, acclimatization, and emergency response plans for workers.
Where to cool off: a geospatial framework for placement of cooling centers
| B. Kar et al. | Cartography and Geographic Information Science | 2025
Researchers propose using geospatial analysis to place cooling centers near people most at risk during extreme heat.
Public health effectiveness of cooling centres during periods of heat
| C. Dearman et al. | Oxford Open Climate Change | 2025
This review examines how cooling centers can reduce heat illness and what barriers prevent people from using them.
Understanding and improving cooling centre use in metro Vancouver
| Liv Yoon et al. | Environmental Research: Health | 2025
This study investigates why cooling centers are underused and how awareness, access, transportation, hours, and trust can improve heat protection.
Uncovering cooling center usage as an adaptation strategy for hurricane-blackout-heat compound hazards during Hurricane Beryl
| Tianle Duan, Fengxiu Zhang and Qingchun Li | arXiv | March 21 2025
The study shows how cooling centers can help during overlapping heat and power-outage disasters, especially when placed near vulnerable residents.
Why sizzling cities are mapping hot spots street by street
| Katharine Gammon | Knowable Magazine | March 5 2025
Citizen-science heat mapping helps cities identify the hottest blocks and prioritize trees, shade, cooling centers, and other targeted interventions.
Indian slums get 'cool roofs' to combat extreme heat
Reflective roofs in Indian informal settlements show how low-cost retrofits can reduce indoor heat for residents most exposed to dangerous temperatures.
How Cities Can Beat Extreme Heat: Mapping the Invisible Killer
| OGC Extreme Heat Team | Open Geospatial Consortium | August 20 2025
This article explains how building-level heat mapping can help cities target interventions and prevent heat-related deaths.
Leveraging urban AI for high-resolution urban heat mapping
| A. Shaamala et al. | Environment and Planning B | April 24 2025
Researchers use AI to create high-resolution urban heat maps that can guide neighborhood cooling strategies and infrastructure investments.
A Multidimensional Approach to Mapping Urban Heat Vulnerability
| S. Alnajjar et al. | Smart Cities | 2025
This study maps urban heat vulnerability by combining remote sensing, urban form, social vulnerability, and accessibility to cooling resources.
Integrated tree canopy expansion and cool roofs can optimize air temperature and heat exposure reductions in Boston
| Ian A. Smith et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2025
The study finds that tree canopy and cool roofs can be targeted together to reduce urban air temperatures and heat exposure.
Review of Cooling Effects from Roof Mitigation Strategies
| Y. Yang et al. | Buildings | October 23 2025
This review compares cool roofs, green roofs, and other roof strategies for reducing building and neighborhood heat.
Cool Roofs Offer Hope Against Extreme Heat in Rural Africa
| Edith Zhao | Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute | October 7 2025
Researchers explore reflective roofs as a practical intervention for rural communities facing rising heat and limited access to mechanical cooling.
Trees are natural ACs for cities, if you plant the right ones
| Dialogue Earth | Dialogue Earth | October 1 2025
The article explains how tree species, placement, maintenance, and equity affect the cooling benefits of urban tree planting.
Call to action: recognize and prevent the effects of extreme heat on early childhood development and health
| V. S. Vanitha Sampath et al. | Frontiers in Public Health | 2025
Researchers call for child-focused heat protections including cool schools, shaded play areas, cooling centers, and support for families with young children.
Climate Change Is Subjecting More Americans to Unbearable Extreme Heat
| Center for American Progress | Center for American Progress | July 31 2025
This article connects rising heat exposure to the need for cooling centers, utility assistance, worker protections, and local heat planning.
This group is the most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses by far
| Dino Grandoni | The Washington Post | June 9 2025
People experiencing homelessness face especially high heat illness risk, making shelter, outreach, water access, and cooling centers essential heat solutions.
What to do and avoid in extreme heat
| Allie Volpe | Vox | July 2025
This guide explains practical heat-safety steps such as using cooling centers, staying hydrated, avoiding peak heat, cooling homes, and checking on vulnerable people.
Living With Extreme Heat? These Cities Are Taking Action
| Solcyré Burga | Time | July 2025
Cities are creating heat officer roles, cooling centers, cooling kits, warning systems, and planning reforms to protect residents from extreme heat.
A Comprehensive Strategy to Address Extreme Heat in Schools
| Federation of American Scientists | FAS | April 2 2024
This policy memo calls for better school heat data, energy-efficient cooling, green schoolyards, infrastructure upgrades, and federal coordination.
Protecting Children From Extreme Heat Is Critical for Their Health, Learning, and Development
| Allie Schneider and Emily Gee | Center for American Progress | July 17 2024
The article argues for school cooling, green schoolyards, safer housing, child care protections, and public investments to protect children during heat waves.
Google pilots heat resilience tool in 14 US cities
| Ysabelle Kempe | Smart Cities Dive | September 9 2024
Google’s heat resilience tool helps cities compare the cooling impact of trees and reflective roofs at the neighborhood level.
Tackling extreme urban heat: a machine learning approach to assess climate adaptation strategies
| Grant Buster et al. | arXiv | November 8 2024
Researchers model how high-albedo surfaces and other interventions could reduce cooling demand and heat exposure in Los Angeles.
Extreme heat is associated with reductions in human activity
| Andrew Renninger and Olena Holubowska | arXiv | September 30 2024
The study shows how extreme heat reduces mobility and productivity, strengthening the case for shade, cooling access, and heat-safe transportation design.
Grist 50 2024: 50 climate leaders to watch
| Grist Staff | Grist | September 5 2024
Grist profiles climate leaders working on solutions, including community resilience, public health, infrastructure, and adaptation efforts relevant to extreme heat.
Urban Heat Islands 101
| Resources for the Future | RFF | March 14 2023
This explainer describes why cities get hotter and how heat mapping, cool roofs, vegetation, and land-use policy can reduce urban heat islands.
The Urban Heat Island and Extreme Heat: Eight Guidelines for Trees in the Urban Landscape
| New York State Urban Forestry Council | NYSUFC | August 29 2023
Urban forestry guidance explains how the right trees in the right places can provide shade, evapotranspiration, and long-term neighborhood cooling.
Primer for Cool Cities: Reducing Excessive Urban Heat
| World Bank | World Bank | 2020
This primer outlines passive cooling measures such as cool roofs, green roofs, tree canopy, reflective surfaces, and urban design strategies.
Cooling Centers by State
| National Center for Healthy Housing | NCHH | June 30 2025
This resource links residents to cooling-center information across U.S. states, making it easier to find safe indoor cooling during heat emergencies.
Proposed Heat Illness and Injury Prevention
| New Mexico Environment Department | NMED | 2025
New Mexico’s proposed heat rule materials explain employer responsibilities, worker protections, and heat illness prevention strategies.
Workplace Safety in a Warming World
| University of Illinois Labor and Employment Relations | University of Illinois | April 2025
This report examines how rising heat affects workers and why workplace safety standards need to address heat stress, rest, hydration, and enforcement.
Protecting Workers from Extreme Heat; US Department of Labor Proposed Rule
| SAGE Journals | New Solutions | September 9 2025
This article reviews the federal proposed rulemaking process for heat illness and injury prevention and its implications for worker safety.
OSHA Heat Safety Rules for Outdoor Workers: 2025 Guide
| Perry Weather | Perry Weather | 2025
This guide explains proposed OSHA heat protections for outdoor workers, including heat triggers, rest breaks, hydration, shade, and emergency plans.
Heat Exposure
| Occupational Safety and Health Administration | OSHA | 2025
OSHA provides employer and worker guidance on preventing heat illness through water, rest, shade, acclimatization, training, and emergency response.
Water. Rest. Shade.
| Occupational Safety and Health Administration | OSHA | 2025
OSHA’s campaign emphasizes three basic but life-saving worker protections during heat: drinking water, rest breaks, and shade.
NIOSH Heat Stress
| National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health | CDC/NIOSH | 2025
NIOSH provides science-based guidance for preventing occupational heat stress among outdoor and indoor workers.
Heat Health Tracker
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2025
CDC’s Heat Health Tracker helps communities monitor heat risk and plan public health responses using data on temperature and health vulnerability.
About Heat and Your Health
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2025
CDC explains who is most at risk in extreme heat and how cooling, hydration, indoor safety, and neighbor check-ins can prevent illness.
Clinical Guidance for Heat Illness
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2025
CDC gives clinicians guidance on recognizing heat exhaustion and heat stroke and protecting vulnerable patients during extreme heat.
National Integrated Heat Health Information System
Heat.gov gathers federal heat forecasts, risk tools, planning resources, and data to help communities prepare for dangerous heat.
HeatRisk
| NOAA and National Weather Service | NOAA/NWS | 2025
HeatRisk provides color-coded heat alerts that can help communities time cooling-center openings, outreach, and public safety messaging.
Urban Heat Island Mapping Campaigns
NOAA’s mapping campaigns use community volunteers and sensors to identify block-by-block heat differences and guide local cooling investments.
Heat.gov Planning and Preparing
This resource supports local heat planning, including preparedness checklists, alert systems, cooling strategies, and community coordination.
Climate and Health Program: Extreme Heat
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2025
CDC connects climate-driven heat risks with public health solutions such as heat action plans, surveillance, cooling access, and outreach.
Heat Island Effect
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025
EPA’s heat island resource hub explains how built surfaces increase temperatures and how cool roofs, trees, and reflective pavement can help.
Using Trees and Vegetation to Reduce Heat Islands
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025
EPA explains how trees and vegetation cool neighborhoods through shade and evapotranspiration while also improving air quality and stormwater management.
Cool Roofs
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025
Cool roofs reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat, lowering roof temperatures, indoor heat, and neighborhood heat island effects.
Cool Pavements
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025
EPA explains how reflective and permeable pavements can reduce surface temperatures and help cool streets, parking lots, and neighborhoods.
Green Roofs
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025
Green roofs can reduce roof temperatures, manage stormwater, and add vegetation that helps moderate urban heat.
Heat Island Cooling Strategies
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025
EPA summarizes the main cooling strategies for cities, including trees, cool roofs, cool pavements, green roofs, and energy-efficient buildings.
Cool Cities Lab
| World Resources Institute | Heat Health Information Network | 2025
The Cool Cities Lab helps cities estimate the benefits of street trees, cool roofs, shade structures, and other heat-resilience interventions before building them.
Africa's cities innovate to beat the heat
| Africa Climate Insights | Africa Climate Insights | 2025
African cities are experimenting with cooling centers, green infrastructure, shaded public spaces, and public health planning to reduce heat risk.
Climate Change Heat Mitigation Guide for Homeowners
| ClimateCheck | ClimateCheck | 2025
This guide explains homeowner heat adaptations such as shade trees, awnings, roof improvements, insulation, ventilation, and safer indoor cooling.
Confronting a “silent killer:” reducing vulnerability to extreme heat
| B. K. Sovacool et al. | Climatic Change | 2025
This article reviews vulnerability to extreme heat and the need for layered solutions such as cooling access, urban design, public health outreach, and governance.
How cities are striving to cope with ever-increasing heatwaves
Researchers review how cities are adapting to heat through cooling centers, cool roofs, greening, heat plans, and public health interventions.
Urban Heat Resilience: Bridging Science, Policy, and Practice
| Asian Disaster Preparedness Center | ADPC | June 2025
This report connects science and policy for urban heat resilience, including mapping, risk communication, heat action plans, and nature-based cooling.
Heat Action Plan for Orange County
| Orange County, North Carolina | Orange County NC | 2025
The draft plan proposes cooling-center coordination, outreach, communications, and support for organizations willing to provide cooling spaces.
Extreme Heat: A Guide for Local Governments
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025
This guide helps local governments prepare for heat through warning systems, cooling centers, public outreach, shade, and long-term urban planning.
Heat Action Platform
| Global Heat Health Information Network | GHHIN | 2025
The Heat Action Platform supports governments and organizations developing heat-health warning systems, response plans, and community protection strategies.
Heat Action Day
| International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies | IFRC | 2025
Heat Action Day promotes simple lifesaving measures such as hydration, shade, cooling access, checking on neighbors, and preparing communities before heat waves.
Extreme Heat: Preparing for the Heat
Ready.gov provides household and community preparedness steps, including finding cooling locations, staying hydrated, checking on others, and recognizing heat illness.
Extreme Heat Safety
| National Weather Service | NWS | 2025
NWS heat safety guidance helps people and communities respond to heat alerts, prevent heat illness, and plan safer outdoor activity.
HeatRisk Forecast Tool
| National Weather Service | NWS | 2025
HeatRisk helps translate heat forecasts into health risk levels that can trigger school, workplace, and community safety actions.
Cooling Centers and Extreme Heat
| New York City Emergency Management | NYC Emergency Management | 2025
New York City’s heat preparedness page explains cooling centers, heat alerts, vulnerable resident check-ins, and safety steps during dangerous temperatures.
Cool It! NYC
| New York City Parks | NYC Parks | 2025
Cool It! NYC maps spray showers, drinking fountains, pools, shade, and other public cooling resources across the city.
NYC CoolRoofs
| NYC Department of Small Business Services | NYC SBS | 2025
NYC CoolRoofs trains workers and coats roofs with reflective material to reduce building heat and energy demand.
Beat the Heat: Philadelphia
| City of Philadelphia | City of Philadelphia | 2025
Philadelphia’s program uses neighborhood heat planning, cooling centers, public education, and community outreach to protect residents.
Heat Relief Network
| Maricopa Association of Governments | Heat Relief Network | 2025
Arizona’s Heat Relief Network maps cooling centers, hydration stations, and donation sites to help residents survive dangerous heat.
Heat Response and Mitigation
| City of Phoenix | City of Phoenix | 2025
Phoenix provides heat response resources, cooling centers, hydration locations, shade planning, and public health guidance for one of the hottest U.S. cities.
Office of Heat Response and Mitigation
| City of Phoenix | City of Phoenix | 2025
Phoenix’s heat office coordinates shade, tree canopy, cooling centers, emergency response, and long-term mitigation strategies.
Miami-Dade County Extreme Heat
| Miami-Dade County | Miami-Dade County | 2025
Miami-Dade’s heat program includes alerts, public education, cooling resources, and planning led by a chief heat officer.
Keep Cool Miami-Dade
| Miami-Dade County | Miami-Dade County | 2025
Keep Cool Miami-Dade shares ways to stay safe, find cooling resources, protect workers, and prepare neighborhoods for heat.
Los Angeles Cool Streets
| City of Los Angeles | StreetsLA | 2025
Los Angeles uses cool pavement, street trees, and neighborhood upgrades to reduce heat on streets and sidewalks.
LA County Heat Relief
| Los Angeles County | LA County | 2025
Los Angeles County provides heat alerts, cooling center information, health guidance, and emergency preparedness for residents.
Austin Heat Plan
| City of Austin | City of Austin | 2025
Austin’s heat planning resources focus on cooling centers, communications, vulnerable populations, and safer outdoor activity during extreme heat.
Austin Resilience Hubs
| City of Austin | City of Austin | 2025
Resilience hubs can serve as neighborhood cooling, charging, communication, and resource centers during heat and other emergencies.
Houston Harris Heat Action Team
| Houston Harris Heat Action Team | H3AT | 2025
H3AT uses community heat mapping to identify hotter neighborhoods and guide tree planting, cooling infrastructure, and public health action.
Are some Houston neighborhoods hotter than others? A new mapping effort found a 14-degree difference
| Emily Foxhall | Houston Chronicle | March 2025
Houston-area heat mapping found large neighborhood temperature differences and is being used to guide trees and cooling investments.
Boston Heat Resilience Solutions
| City of Boston | City of Boston | 2025
Boston’s heat resilience planning includes cool roofs, green infrastructure, tree canopy, shaded corridors, and support for vulnerable residents.
Chicago Cooling Areas
| City of Chicago | City of Chicago | 2025
Chicago lists cooling centers and public cooling areas that residents can use during extreme heat events.
Chicago Urban Heat Island Mapping
| City of Chicago | City of Chicago | 2025
Chicago’s climate planning identifies heat islands and promotes tree canopy, cool surfaces, and support for residents during hot weather.
Washington DC Cooling Centers
| DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency | District of Columbia | 2025
Washington, DC provides cooling-center locations and emergency heat resources for residents during high-temperature events.
Baltimore Code Red Extreme Heat
| Baltimore City Health Department | Baltimore City | 2025
Baltimore’s Code Red program opens cooling centers, conducts outreach, and warns residents when heat reaches dangerous levels.
Seattle Extreme Heat
| City of Seattle | City of Seattle | 2025
Seattle provides heat preparedness guidance, cooling center information, and strategies for staying safe in homes without air conditioning.
King County Extreme Heat
| King County Public Health | King County | 2025
King County explains heat-health risks and local strategies such as cooling centers, outreach, and support for vulnerable people.
Portland Cooling Centers and Heat Safety
| City of Portland | City of Portland | 2025
Portland shares cooling resources, heat safety tips, and emergency information for residents during extreme heat.
Multnomah County Help for When It’s Hot
| Multnomah County | Multnomah County | 2025
Multnomah County provides cooling shelter information, transportation support, and heat safety guidance for residents.
San Francisco Extreme Heat
| City and County of San Francisco | SF72 | 2025
San Francisco’s heat guidance explains how to prepare for heat, find cooling places, and protect vulnerable neighbors.
California Heat Ready CA
| State of California | Heat Ready CA | 2025
California’s Heat Ready campaign provides public guidance on cooling centers, hydration, heat illness, worker safety, and community preparedness.
Cal/OSHA Heat Illness Prevention
| California Department of Industrial Relations | Cal/OSHA | 2025
Cal/OSHA requires heat illness prevention steps such as water, shade, rest, training, and emergency procedures for outdoor workers.
California Indoor Heat Illness Prevention
| California Department of Industrial Relations | Cal/OSHA | 2025
California’s heat illness resources include indoor heat protections for workers in warehouses, kitchens, manufacturing, and other hot workplaces.
Washington Outdoor Heat Exposure Rule
| Washington State Department of Labor & Industries | Washington L&I | 2025
Washington’s heat stress rules require prevention plans, shade or cooling areas, drinking water, training, and emergency response for workers.
Oregon Heat Illness Prevention
| Oregon OSHA | Oregon OSHA | 2025
Oregon’s worker heat protections include access to shade, cool drinking water, rest breaks, acclimatization, and training.
Minnesota Extreme Heat Toolkit
| Minnesota Department of Health | MDH | 2025
Minnesota’s toolkit supports local heat planning, cooling centers, public messaging, and protection for older adults and medically vulnerable residents.
Arizona Extreme Heat Preparedness
| Arizona Department of Health Services | AZDHS | 2025
Arizona provides heat safety guidance, surveillance, cooling resources, and prevention strategies for residents and communities.
Maricopa County Heat Surveillance
| Maricopa County | Maricopa County | 2025
Heat surveillance data helps Maricopa County identify who is dying from heat and improve cooling centers, outreach, and prevention.
Pima County Beat the Heat
| Pima County | Pima County | 2025
Pima County provides cooling center information, hydration resources, and heat safety guidance for residents.
Clark County Beat the Heat
| Clark County Nevada | Clark County | 2025
Clark County’s heat program includes cooling stations, public education, water access, and outreach to vulnerable residents.
Southern Nevada Heat Resilience
| Southern Nevada Health District | SNHD | 2025
Southern Nevada’s public health guidance focuses on heat illness prevention, cooling access, and community resilience in a hot desert region.
Las Vegas Urban Cooling
| City of Las Vegas | City of Las Vegas | 2025
Las Vegas promotes urban forestry and shade as a way to reduce heat, improve walkability, and protect residents.
Denver Extreme Heat
| City and County of Denver | Denver CASR | 2025
Denver’s heat planning includes cooling centers, tree canopy, neighborhood resilience, and protection for people most at risk.
Colorado Heat Safety
| Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment | CDPHE | 2025
Colorado connects heat warnings, health risks, and local preparedness strategies such as cooling resources and community outreach.
New York State Extreme Heat Action Plan
| New York State Department of Environmental Conservation | NYS DEC | 2025
New York’s heat planning focuses on reducing heat exposure through cooling access, tree canopy, resilient buildings, and public health coordination.
New Jersey Extreme Heat Resilience
| New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection | NJDEP | 2025
New Jersey explains extreme heat risks and promotes resilience through tree canopy, cool surfaces, planning, and support for vulnerable communities.
Massachusetts Extreme Heat
| Commonwealth of Massachusetts | Mass.gov | 2025
Massachusetts provides heat safety information and local preparedness tools for residents, municipalities, schools, and caregivers.
Connecticut Extreme Heat
| Connecticut Department of Public Health | CT DPH | 2025
Connecticut’s heat-health page supports public warnings, cooling centers, health guidance, and outreach to vulnerable residents.
Maryland Extreme Heat
| Maryland Department of Health | MDH | 2025
Maryland provides guidance on heat illness, cooling centers, staying safe indoors, and protecting vulnerable people.
North Carolina Heat Health
| North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services | NCDHHS | 2025
North Carolina’s heat-health resources support warnings, public education, local planning, and protection for outdoor workers and vulnerable residents.
Florida Extreme Heat
| Florida Department of Health | FDOH | 2025
Florida explains heat illness prevention, public health risks, and protective actions for residents during extreme heat.
Texas Extreme Heat
| Texas Department of State Health Services | DSHS | 2025
Texas provides heat illness prevention guidance and health surveillance that can support cooling centers, outreach, and worker protections.
Preparing Schools for Extreme Heat
| National Council on School Facilities | NCSF | 2025
School facilities guidance emphasizes HVAC upgrades, shaded outdoor spaces, heat plans, hydration access, and emergency protocols for students.
Green Schoolyards for Extreme Heat
| Green Schoolyards America | Green Schoolyards America | 2025
Green schoolyards replace asphalt with trees, gardens, and shade to reduce heat exposure for children and surrounding neighborhoods.
Trust for Public Land: Community Schoolyards
| Trust for Public Land | Trust for Public Land | 2025
Community schoolyards can turn hot asphalt into shaded public spaces that cool neighborhoods and give families safer outdoor areas.
Smart Surfaces Coalition
| Smart Surfaces Coalition | Smart Surfaces Coalition | 2025
The coalition promotes cool roofs, reflective pavements, solar, trees, and green infrastructure as “smart surfaces” that cool cities and cut energy costs.
The Cool Roof Rating Council
| Cool Roof Rating Council | CRRC | 2025
The council rates roofing products by solar reflectance and thermal emittance, helping builders choose materials that reduce heat gain.
Global Cool Cities Alliance
| Global Cool Cities Alliance | GCCA | 2025
The alliance promotes cool roofs and cool pavements as scalable ways to reduce urban heat, save energy, and improve public health.
Million Trees LA
| City Plants | City of Los Angeles | 2025
Los Angeles tree programs help residents and neighborhoods add shade trees that reduce heat and improve air quality.
Medellín Green Corridors
| C40 Cities | C40 Cities | 2025
Medellín’s green corridors show how tree-lined streets and planted public spaces can lower temperatures and make walking safer during heat.
Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan
| Natural Resources Defense Council | NRDC | 2025
Ahmedabad’s heat action plan is a model for early warnings, public outreach, health-system preparation, and protecting vulnerable communities.
Heat Action Plans: Lessons from India
| NRDC | Natural Resources Defense Council | 2025
Indian heat action plans show how warnings, public communication, cool roofs, worker protections, and health system readiness can reduce heat deaths.
C40 Cool Cities Accelerator
| C40 Cities | C40 Cities | 2025
Cities in the accelerator commit to reducing urban heat through cool surfaces, green space, shade, public health planning, and equitable adaptation.
Global Heat Health Information Network
| GHHIN | Global Heat Health Information Network | 2025
GHHIN shares research and practice on heat-health warning systems, cooling strategies, workplace protections, and public health planning.
Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance
| Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center | Arsht-Rock | 2025
The alliance supports cities and communities developing heat-resilience tools, early warnings, cooling access, and protection for vulnerable populations.
Arsht-Rock Heat Action Platform
| Arsht-Rock Resilience Center | Arsht-Rock | 2025
This platform helps cities and organizations turn heat risk data into practical action such as alerts, cooling access, and emergency response.
FEMA Extreme Heat Resources
| Federal Emergency Management Agency | FEMA | 2025
FEMA’s extreme heat resources support hazard mitigation, preparedness, public communication, and resilience planning for local governments.
Heat Islands and Equity
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025
EPA explains how heat islands disproportionately affect low-income and historically marginalized neighborhoods and why cooling investments should be targeted equitably.
Urban Cooling and Equity
| World Resources Institute | WRI | 2025
WRI’s Cool Cities Lab helps cities evaluate which combinations of trees, cool roofs, and shade structures deliver the most equitable cooling.
Building Resilience Against Extreme Heat
| The Nature Conservancy | TNC | 2025
Nature-based solutions such as tree canopy, parks, green corridors, and restored natural areas can reduce heat while improving public health.
Heat Resilience and Urban Trees
| U.S. Forest Service | USDA Forest Service | 2025
Urban forestry research supports tree canopy planning as a long-term strategy for cooling streets, reducing heat exposure, and protecting vulnerable neighborhoods.
Shade Is Critical Infrastructure
| Strong Towns | Strong Towns | July 18 2024
This article argues that shade should be treated as public infrastructure for walkability, transit access, public health, and heat safety.
Cool Streets and Pavement Cooling
| California Energy Commission | CEC | 2025
California’s urban heat island reduction work includes cool pavements, reflective materials, and strategies to lower surface temperatures.
Extreme Heat Protections for Farmworkers
| Farmworker Justice | Farmworker Justice | 2025
Farmworker heat protection requires shade, water, rest breaks, emergency response, and enforceable labor standards for outdoor agricultural work.
Public Transit and Extreme Heat
| American Public Transportation Association | APTA | 2025
Transit agencies can protect riders and workers through shaded stops, cooling centers near transit, heat-resilient infrastructure, and emergency operations planning.
Shade at Bus Stops Saves Lives
| TransitCenter | TransitCenter | 2025
Bus stop shade, seating, and water access can reduce heat exposure for transit riders, especially older adults, disabled riders, and low-income commuters.
Extreme Heat and Housing
| National Low Income Housing Coalition | NLIHC | 2025
Safe housing policy can reduce heat deaths by improving cooling access, weatherization, tenant protections, utility assistance, and emergency shelter options.
Weatherization and Cooling
| U.S. Department of Energy | DOE | 2025
Weatherization can reduce indoor heat by improving insulation, air sealing, ventilation, and energy efficiency for low-income households.
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and Cooling
| U.S. Department of Health and Human Services | HHS | 2025
LIHEAP can help eligible households pay cooling bills, preventing dangerous indoor heat for residents who cannot afford air conditioning.
Extreme Heat and Older Adults
| National Institute on Aging | NIH | 2025
Older adults face high heat risk, making cooling centers, wellness checks, hydration, medication review, and indoor cooling especially important.
Extreme Heat and Disability
| Administration for Community Living | ACL | 2025
Heat planning must include people with disabilities through accessible cooling centers, transportation, backup power, caregiver outreach, and clear communication.
Extreme Heat and Schools: Protecting Students
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025
Healthy school building strategies, including ventilation and temperature control, help protect students during hotter school days.
Schoolyard Forest System
| Green Schoolyards America | Green Schoolyards America | 2025
Schoolyard forests create shade, reduce surface heat, and give children cooler outdoor learning and play spaces.
Cooling Schools with Trees
| Trust for Public Land | Trust for Public Land | 2025
Tree-filled schoolyards help replace heat-trapping asphalt with shade and public green space that cools surrounding neighborhoods.
Extreme Heat and Public Libraries
| American Library Association | ALA | 2025
Libraries can serve as trusted cooling centers, information hubs, and safe indoor spaces during heat emergencies.
Resilience Hubs for Extreme Heat
| Urban Sustainability Directors Network | USDN | 2025
Resilience hubs can provide cooling, charging, water, emergency information, and trusted community support during heat waves and outages.
Community-Based Heat Resilience
| Prevention Institute | Prevention Institute | 2025
Community-based heat planning centers resident leadership, local outreach, cooling spaces, shade, and public health supports in vulnerable neighborhoods.
Cooling Centers Work Best When People Can Reach Them
| B. Kar et al. | Cartography and Geographic Information Science | 2025
Cooling centers are more useful when planners consider transit, walkability, hours, accessibility, and where heat-vulnerable residents actually live.
Street Trees, Shade and Walkability
| Institute for Transportation and Development Policy | ITDP | 2025
Street design can reduce heat exposure by adding shade, trees, safer sidewalks, transit shelters, and cooler walking routes.
Urban Shade as Heat Protection
| C40 Knowledge Hub | C40 Cities | 2025
Shade from trees, awnings, canopies, and street design is one of the fastest ways to lower people’s experienced heat outdoors.
Reflective Roofs and Heat Equity
| Eliza Fawcett | Healthbeat | June 25 2025
Reflective roof programs can help reduce indoor heat in apartments and other buildings where residents lack reliable cooling.
Neighborhood Heat Mapping for Equity
| Katharine Gammon | Knowable Magazine | March 5 2025
Heat mapping reveals which blocks are hottest so cities can place trees, cooling centers, shade, and outreach where they are most needed.
Cooling Centers, Hotels and Heat Disasters
| Tianle Duan, Fengxiu Zhang and Qingchun Li | arXiv | March 21 2025
Research after Hurricane Beryl shows that cooling centers can be a crucial alternative to hotels for lower-income residents during heat and blackout emergencies.
Urban Heat Mapping in Houston
| Emily Foxhall | Houston Chronicle | March 2025
Houston’s mapping effort found sharp neighborhood heat differences and can guide tree planting, shade, and cooling infrastructure.
Heat-Safe Workplaces
| Maureen Coffey | Center for American Progress | May 20 2025
Worker heat standards can prevent illness by requiring rest, shade, water, acclimatization, training, and emergency response across high-risk jobs.
Extreme Heat Solutions for Cities
| World Resources Institute | WRI | July 16 2025
Better urban infrastructure can lower heat by replacing heat-trapping surfaces with shade, vegetation, cool roofs, and reflective pavement.
Cool Roofs as Public Health Infrastructure
| Sarah Johnson | The Guardian | June 1 2026
Cool roofs are emerging as a low-cost public health tool for homes, schools, and clinics in regions where air conditioning is scarce or expensive.
Climate Shelters and Public Cooling
| Ajit Niranjan | The Guardian | June 26 2026
Barcelona and other European cities are turning libraries, schools, museums, and public buildings into climate shelters for people who need safe cooling.
Heat Drills for Cities
| Natalie Donback | Grist | May 5 2026
Heat drills help cities find gaps in communication, transportation, cooling-center operations, and support for older adults before a real emergency.
Extreme Heat Solutions That Do Not Make the Problem Worse
| WIPO | World Intellectual Property Organization | 2026
Passive cooling technologies such as reflective roofs, shade, urban greening, and permeable pavement can reduce heat without relying only on air conditioning.
