Tackling the Urban Heat Island (New York, New York), page 22
Overview:
- New York City has found that historically marginalized neighborhoods are the most impacted by heat-related effects of climate change
- Building on existing efforts, the Mayor's Office of Recovery and Resiliency released the Cool Neighborhoods strategy
- The Cool Neighborhoods strategy used the Heat Vulnerability Index to determine where initiatives should be targeted for the residents that are most vulnerable
Outcomes:
- Urban Heat Island Mitigation Working Group was made up of agency representatives, community organizations, and researchers, who helped the City identify and select heat-related strategies, creating a holistic and coordinated solution to heat impacts in NYC
- Each initiative began with understanding the context and the data as it relates to vulnerability
- Outreach and engagement initiatives created a network of volunteers to check in on residents, particularly the elderly, during heat waves and refer them back to City services
- The NYC CoolRoofs initiative program targets heat vulnerable neighborhoods, allowing building owners to have their roofs coated with a white, reflective coating at no to little cost, reducing internal building temperatures during warm months and reduces cooling energy needs and costs within the building
- The City trains local New Yorkers to engage communities. Since summer 2017, the initiative has coated 6,730,299 square feet of roofs, engaged 5,934 volunteers, and saved nearly 2,680 metric tons of CO2 emissions
- What makes this program particularly exemplary is its push for City agency collaboration around a common goal of addressing heat vulnerabilities and extending outreach
Equity Implications: