Jun 11, 2020 VCCA Webinar Series: The Enduring Legacy of Inequitable Heat Exposure in US Cities
VCCA is proud to launch our 2020 Webinar Series, Health in Virginia’s Changing Climate!
Through monthly webinars, VCCA will bring experts from academic centers across the region to discuss how changes in climate are affecting health conditions such as allergic rhinitis, waterborne infections, and heat illness. These events will be held on the first Thursday of every month from 12:30-1:30 (adjusted for holidays).
Thursday, June 11th, 2020 | 12:30pm EST
The Enduring Legacy of Inequitable Heat Exposure in US Cities
In July 2017, the Richmond Urban Heat Island Assessment – a community-informed, citizen science campaign – found that temperatures can vary by over 15°F across the city at the same time during a heat wave event. Warmer temperatures tended to be centralized in communities of color with limited resources, whose disproportionate exposure to heat appears to be borne out in adverse health outcomes from asthma to heat-related illnesses. These patterns also echo maps of Richmond community “redlining” during the 1930s and 1940s. Do these patterns play out regionally and nationally? Here we’ll explore plausible connections between historical housing policy and exposure to extreme heat, as well as other deleterious patterns in our urban areas.