Assessing Extreme Heat in Santa Clara County
Jessica Luna
June 12, 2024
Introduction
Extreme Heat as a Public Health Issue
Extreme heat events are a growing cause for concern in the realm of public health, as we learn more about the impacts of climate change and global warming. Extreme Heat Events (EHEs) include high-heat days and rising temperatures that are abnormal for a region. Extreme heat events are on the rise, which poses a disproportionate impact on vulnerable communities that are greater exposed, more sensitive to, and less able to adapt to heat (Bradford et al. 2015). Determinants of health, like race and socioeconomic status, amplify the risk of an individual living in an area with less shade, more paved surfaces, and higher temperatures. (Gabbe et al. 2023). Therefore, heat vulnerable communities have often been identified as being low-income, unhoused individuals, elderly populations, outdoor laborers, and disabled people (Li et al. 2015). Santa Clara County is particularly at risk for greater extreme heat events, as it is a major urban center that experiences the urban heat island effect. Given that extreme heat projections are expected to increase, it is important to incorporate risk management to assess current and potential climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.
The Significance of Looking at Shade & Public School Students
One climate mitigation strategy is the use and implementation of urban green spaces within high-density urban areas. My project builds on this previous work by looking at extreme heat and tree canopy coverage concerning school-aged children elementary school system locations across Santa Clara County. This is an important topic to discover because young-aged populations can potentially be at higher risk for heat exhaustion or heat-related illnesses. Research notes that, people who perform outdoor activities are more vulnerable to heat-related illness because they are exposed to high heat for longer episodes of time (Park et al. 2017). Despite playgrounds and parks having structures that create shade, the shade provided during different times in the day can greatly reduce the amount of shade available (Downs et al. 2022). For young students, those at outdoor PE, recess, or sports practice may be at risk of experiencing a heat-related illness during hotter seasons. Another reason to understand the heat risk of school-age children, particularly public school children, is because of how social determinants of health can play a role in their vulnerability to EHEs. In public elementary schools, green spaces like school gardens are less prevalent in the less well-off and more ethnically diverse communities of Santa Clara County (Stewart et al. 2013). In other words, students that are from less privileged neighborhoods, or who recieved free or reduced price lunch have less access to green space, which may increase their risk and vulnerability to extreme heat events. By assessing the extreme heat risk for youth, we have the opportunity to improve mitigation and resilience strategies for our future generations, like increasing tree canopy.
Extreme Heat Assessment
Projected Days of Extreme Heat in SCC
EHE_mapFIGURE 1: The amount of EHE generally increases moving southwards on the map. Disproportionately affected communities include: Gilroy and East Side San Jose
To put in perspective why it is important to address how Santa Clara will be impacted by extreme heat events, let’s take a look at future projections. By the year 2064, there will a heightened increase in the amount of extreme heat days experienced per year within the county of Santa Clara. Across the entire county, there will be a minimum increase of 10 more extreme heat days per year. However, results show that the increase in extreme heat is not the same across county tracts. The tracts that will face the most extreme heat events in the future are more southward in the county. There is a noticeable pattern in the proportion of extreme heat events increasing as one moved southwards on the map.However, evidence also shows that certain tracts outside of south county will also be disproportionately impacted more by heat waves, such as East Side San Jose.