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FUTURE PL ANET | WEATHER

How Texas is racing to thwart the heat

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(Image credit: Getty Images)

By Lucy Sherriff 14th July 2023

Amidst a record-breaking heatwave, cities across Texas are exploring ways to

keep people cool. But the state also needs to tackle historic inequalities affecting
who is most impacted by excessive heat.

Article continues below

his summer, Texans have endured scorching temperatures as hot as 48C

T
(119F), making the state one of the hottest places on Earth.

The state is trapped under a "heat dome", a phenomenon that happens when
high pressure traps dry, hot air over an area, causing the hot air to sink to the
earth's surface and preventing clouds from forming. Due to high humidity, these
 temperatures feel even hotter. And forecasters project the intense heat will expand north
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into the Plains Menu 
and from the west coast to the Gulf Coast in the coming days, leaving
millions more people facing excessive heat warnings.

But as the heatwave continues, many cities in Texas are beginning to take proactive
measures to cool their streets down and protect people from the dangerous impacts of
overheating. These cooling measures are also being implemented more widely across the
US, from installing green roofs and walls and painting streets with cool pavement coating
to purchasing air conditioning units for vulnerable residents.

"Planning for heat is not as well-developed in the US as planning for other hazards like
flooding," says Sara Meerow, associate professor at Arizona State University's school of
geographical sciences and urban planning. "I think this is changing as heat becomes a more
visible and universal threat."

Homeless resident Randy Twede, waits for a bus in July 2023 in Austin, Texas. 'These
temperatures are no joke, I'm just trying to survive that's all.' (Credit: Getty Images)

A particularly concerning aspect of this year's heatwave is that temperatures are not cooling
down enough at night, leading to "more danger than a typical heat event", according to the
National Weather Service.

The number of record high temperatures measured across Texas has increased 510% since
1913, with at least 279 people dying of heat-related illness last year, according to Texas
Tribune analysis. (Read more about whether Texas could become too hot for humans).
 Researchers have already linked the heatwave, which stretches across Texas, the US
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and Mexico, to climate change, with a rapid analysis finding climate change
made it at least five times more likely as it would otherwise have been.

Heatwaves are particularly dangerous for city-dwellers due to a phenomenon known as

the "urban heat island" effect. A lack of trees, the density of buildings, and concrete and
asphalt materials that soak up the sun's rays means cities sequester heat. In these urban
heat islands temperatures can be up to 20F (~6-11C) hotter than less populated areas.

But cities can take measures to protect their residents against the heat – and many in Texas
are already beginning to take action.

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The white roofs cooling women's homes in Indian slums

Austin, which is expecting a 50% increase of days above 38C (100F) by the end of the
century – roughly 45 days of extreme heat every year – laid out a climate resilience action
plan in 2018, which city officials are currently updating. Key strategies in the plan include
strengthening emergency response and future-proofing new facilities and infrastructure.

The city set out a coordinated approach to provide cooling relief to vulnerable populations
at times of crisis, including an inventory of backup fans which the public could access during
emergencies, and a push to ensure people could access community facilities with air
conditioning. It also developed an urban forest canopy for the city to ensure cool outdoor
spaces. The city has now applied for a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
grant to plant more trees aer finding the tree canopy coverage was helping Austin to
adapt to hotter temperatures.

In addition to physical adaptations we have found that

increasing social connectivity helps increase community
resilience to extreme heat – Laura Patiño
However, the city also found that more work needed to be done to tackle inequalities,
particularly for communities of colour and low income. Research has shown significant
disparities between the temperatures encountered by black and white urban residents
across the US, with one study finding black people are exposed to air 0.28C warmer than
the city average, while white residents experience temperatures 0.22C cooler. People living
in historically redlined neighbourhoods – where racial discrimination influenced loan
approvals in the past – face higher levels of outdoor heat stress compared to their
counterparts in non-redlined areas of the city, the study found.
 Austin officials are now developing a new resilience plan with a focus on heat mitigation,
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includingPlanet Menu 
researching new ways to combat heat and securing funding to tackle disparities
between communities.

"In addition to physical adaptations we have found that increasing social connectivity helps
increase community resilience to extreme heat," says Laura Patiño, the city's chief resiliency
officer. "The city has established six resilience hubs to meet the daily climate stressors of
city residents while building long-standing community assets and systems of support."

The New York highline is one of several urban canopies around the US which have been found to
provide cooling on hot days (Credit: US Dep Agriculture USDA)

Some hubs offer bathrooms, mobile phone charging and shaded community spaces, while
others can provide emergency food and water, as well as temporary shelter. The locations
for the hubs were selected using a social vulnerability index to ensure they are in areas
where residents most need assistance. Officials are working with community partners to
build trust and relationships with locals to encourage use of the hubs. By 2025, Austin plans
to grow the network to 30 hubs across the city.

Austin is also working with community organisers to map out the city's hottest areas, drive
community engagement, and propose solutions for heat management, Patiño adds. "We
know that heat has environmental and infrastructure consequences: reducing water
availability, contributing to poor air quality, impacting our roads, increasing our energy use,
and putting stress on our electricity grid," she says. "But heat also causes the most
detrimental health impacts of all climate disasters – and is severely affecting the health of
all Austinites, especially for outdoor workers and children."
 Addressing systemic inequities and barriers are also a priority for the city in its approach to
Future
heat, shePlanet 
Menucan
adds. Planting trees, for example, may seem like a simple solution, but they be
hugely effective, particularly in states like Texas, where historically redlined communities
have as much as 21% less tree cover than neighbourhoods that haven't faced racial
discrimination. (Read about how climate change divides along racial lines in our story about
racial climate justice).

A report by the Texas Trees Foundation, a non-profit working to increase urban tree
canopies across the state, found trees cooled some areas as much as 15F (~8C) on hot days.
Shaded surfaces can be 20-45F cooler (~11-24C) than peak temperatures in unshaded
areas. Beyond just providing shade, the trees help to cool the air, as water evaporates from
their leaves. The report found that in Dallas, planting trees was three times more effective
than other cooling strategies.

Since 1982, the foundation has planted an estimated 1.5 million trees in public streets,
boulevards, schools and parks across North Texas. The foundation estimates their future
tree planting will sequester an enormous 3.2 trillion pounds (1.45 billion tonnes) of carbon
over the course of the next 50 years, as well as creating 2.2 trillion sq  (204 billion sq m) of
additional tree canopy.

"Trees have been shown to be vital for reducing heat stress and decreasing the size and
effect of the urban heat island," says Rachel McGregor, urban forestry manager for the
foundation. "Critical infrastructure in low-income neighbourhoods oen lack trees to
mitigate the urban heat island effect, poor air quality, climate change, crime rates, and a
myriad of other challenges that they face but lack the resources to address."
Future
The AustinPlanet access 
Area Urban League is one of several organisations which aims to supportMenu to
clean water during heatwaves (Credit: Getty Images)

Meanwhile, in 2021, San Antonio became the first city in Texas to participate in a pilot
project to lower pavement temperatures by applying a coat of paint that reflects the sun's
rays. The city earmarked a handful of streets to apply the cool pavement seal. While it is too
early to determine if the project has led to lowering the air temperature, early analysis
showed a 10-15F (~6-8C) difference in road surface temperature, says Nicholas Olivier, a
spokesman for the City of San Antonio.

"Heat resilience is of great importance," says Olivier. "Aer last year's record-breaking
summer, the city accelerated the implementation of its heat mitigation tools – such as cool
roofs, tree canopy and cool pavement – with a few strategic moves."

THE WHITEST ROOFS

A team of scientists have designed the

"whitest paint ever" which reflects up to
98% of sunlight – compared to
commercial white paints that reflect
between 80 to 90% of light. The Purdue
ultrawhite paint is designed to coat
rooftops, cooling the building
underneath by as much as 40%.

San Antonio established a climate action fund last year, committing a minimum of $8m
(£6.2m) a year for the next five years, which has announced funding for a further 10 cool
pavement pilot projects across the city. The city will study the locations with the new
coating for a further six months, working with the University of Texas to evaluate the paint's
potential to cool the city down. A second phase of pilot projects is set to combine cool
roofs, trees, cool pavements and other heat relief efforts in the most vulnerable
neighbourhoods.

Beyond Texas, numerous other US cities are adopting strategies to cope with the heat. Las
Vegas is planting 60,000 trees by 2050. However, it is facing problems as its current tree
canopy struggles to deal with the heat. It is now working with a nursery to find species, such
as eucalyptus, acacia, and mesquite, that can adapt to drought and extreme temperatures.
Future Planet Menu 

A pavement is painted white to reflect the heat in San Antonio in April 2023 (Credit: City of San
Antonio)

New York City is promoting a "Be-a-Buddy" programme to share information with

vulnerable populations about how to stay cool during heatwaves, as well as increasing the
city's use of cooling centres. The city's Cool Roofs programme trains local volunteers to
work with city teams to coat rooops with a white reflective coating. So far, more than 9.2
million sq  (850,000 sq m) of rooops have been coated. Cool rooops reduced internal
building temperatures by up to 30% as well as helping lower the city's temperature – black
asphalt rooops can reach temperatures of up to 190F (88C) in the summer.

In Chicago, a text and email emergency notification system identifies public places, like
libraries, as destinations with air conditioning. It also has a new call number for vulnerable
populations who need assistance to get to these centres. The city also established a new
fund to finance commercial green roofs and increase vegetation in heat island areas.
Following a study that showed green spaces lowered land surface temperatures, Chicago
is investing $46m (£35m) to plant 75,000 trees by 2026, envisioning the programme will
reduce urban heat islands and pollution burdens.

Without more state and federal support, I worry that larger

and better resourced communities will advance their heat
planning, while other communities are left behind – Sara
Meerow
 At a federal level, the US Environmental Protection Agency has developed best practices
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for cooling Menu 
down cities to encourage the adoption of heat mitigating policies. Promoting
parks and open space in developed areas is identified as a key cooling strategy, as well as
constructing pavements, streets and parking lots with permeable paving materials – and
incorporating green and cool roofs into building designs.

CARBON COUNT

The emissions from travel it took to report

this story were 0kg CO2. The digital
emissions from this story are an estimated
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more about how we calculated this
figure here.

"At this point all cities need to be planning for extreme heat," says Meerow. "This includes
cities where heat has not traditionally been an issue."

More state and federal support for heat planning would be beneficial, says Meerow, who
calls for more regulations and increased funding for communities. She would also like to
see the federal government declaring heat events as "disasters" – as is already the case with
hurricanes and floods.

"We are already seeing more cities investing in efforts to both mitigate and manage heat,"
she says. "The challenge is that heat is just one of the urgent issues cities need to plan for
with limited resources.

"Without more state and federal support, I worry that larger and better resourced
communities will advance their heat planning, while other communities are le behind."

--

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