Scientists have connected extreme heat events with climate change. This is magnified by urban heating islands (explained further in this annotation) that already plague urban locations. The hotter atmosphere impacts human health. The changing temperature is documented in satellite and ground source datasets. From 1980 to 2013, urban Philadelphia has increased in extreme heat days by a factor of 3, while suburban Philadelphia has stayed at a constant number. High vulnerable areas were found. "A set of indicators has been developed to map the exposure, social sensitivity, and vulnerability of urban populations to heat wave health impacts. [...]The indicators have helped local decision makers to understand patterns of vulnerability, and may be used in the future to target adaptation actions and measure results (LST reduction or vegetation increase) from existing adaptation actions".
Citation:
Stephanie Weber, et. al, "Policy-relevant indicators for mapping the vulnerability of urban populations to extreme heat events: A case study of Philadelphia," Applied Geography 63 (2015), accessed September 23, 2015, doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2015.07.006
Where do the authors work, and what are their areas of expertise? Note any other publications by the authors with relevance to the 6Cities project.
What are the main findings or arguments presented in the article or report?
Exposure: The combined lengths of periods of heat events in urban Philadelphia has largely increased, while remaining consistent in the suburban areas of the city.
10% of Philadelphia's population live in urban areas.
The study used "satellite remote sensing and ground-based physical datasets with socioeconomic data" to determine the vulnerability to urban heat events.
These calculations can be loaded into GIS software and mapping to provide visual aid in revealing the impact of climate change on different urban settings.
The division of vulnerability into categories (exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity) identifies components in which a city can modify its governance in order to aid the specific region's needs. Breaking down into components forms a more comprehensive approach for politicians to understand and tackle this vulnerability, by adapting and solving conflicts.
Large amount of "sensitive" population (elaborated on in methods section) in urban areas but also spread across non-urban areas.
High vulnerability areas
Describe at least three ways that the argument is supported.
Indicators have been developed into mapping systems by the study, for GIS and Google Earth files gives the information to the community in a way that they can learn more on their own, and take part in their city's development.
Images of vulnerability indicators as it varies across the city buffer the argument that there is disparity between urban and suburban areas.
Understandable images and visually stimulating
Identify "hot spots"
Offers "policy applications" of the findings
"The Philadelphia Department of Public Health and City Planning Commission also expressed interest in applying the results in updating their District Plans to apply the policy recommendations from the Citywide Vision comprehensive plan at the local level, including zoning, public facilities, and infrastructure investments"
What three (or more) quotes capture the message of the article or report?
"Extreme heat, which is exacerbated by the UHI effect and climate change, is the leading cause of weather-related mortality in the United States and many other countries"
UHI = Urban Heat Islands
Increased urban emissions and tall infrastructure absorbing shortwave energy from sunlight and emitting it in longwave form
"The number of heat-event days in the urban setting has increased from approximately 4 days in 1980 to almost 12 days in 2013, while the non-urban setting has consistently experienced 5 days of heat events per year across the time period."
"this study sought to develop indicators of urban heat vulnerability that link science and policy in a way that frames the issue in a simple but robust manner, appropriate for supporting informed policy and management decisions"
Allows people in government to visualize the effects of climate change, the science, in order to form policies and react to the environmental changes, with governance.
Links science to governance.
"Maps of pixel-level trends in LST and NDVI over time, when compared with the locations of large-scale cooling or greening projects, enable the evaluation of the effectiveness of such projects."
What were the methods, tools and/or data used to produce the claims or arguments made in the article or report?
"Evidence shows that urban populations with higher levels of sensitivity and lower levels of adaptive capacity generally suffer greater impacts from climate-related hazards"
Chose Philadelphia, PA because of large stakeholder population for climate change and large government involvement in the issue
Met with government officials and stakeholders to establish the policy-relevant indicators that will address the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of an urban setting (combined form vulnerability)
Worked with stakeholders to establish methods and incentives of the study
Formed an Advisory Group: academic, private sector, nonprofit, or government employees that are experts in this technical area
AG provided technical feedback and also preferential feedback, coming from their social involvement
"AG members expressed particular interest in indicators that would help gage the impact of the city's adaptation projects (e.g., tree planting, white roofs) and in spatially disaggregated indicators at the neighborhood scale"
Datasets
Used satellite remote sensing datasets
on extreme heat events
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS),
land surface temperature (LST) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) products, and U.S. Census Bureau data
Used data from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) global surface summary of the day (GSOD)
"daily summaries of mean, maximum, and minimum temperature, precipitation amounts, dew point, and other weather elements"
25 stations in Philadelphia
Found 85 percentile values of daily mean, maximum, and minimum temperature in the city
Directly corresponds with rates of mortality
NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument assisted this study for:
Land surface temperature
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
Land cover classification
The socioeconomic dataset used was the American Community Survey (ACS) from the US Census from 2008 to 2012
Indicator methodology
exposure
measure of how often and intense these weather events happened
Used 3 different types of data because they each had different benefits
Weather station air temperature data
Almost limitless air temperature data but sometimes the stations move and are often distributed sparsely.
Categorized as Urban or Non-Urban
Study temperature difference between the settings and effects of UHI
satellite LST (Land Surface Temperature)
"continual spatial coverage at resolutions conducive to evaluating neighborhood-level exposures"
not exact ambient air temperature, but proportional to it.
Studied the effects of tree shade and evaporating cooling of plant life on air temperature.
An extreme heat event was defined as 3+ consecutive days with mean temperature measured (the average of every station's mean daily measurement) over the 85th percentile of temperatures in July and August in Philadelphia's history (81F).
The annual number of days affected by these extreme heat events were collected.
Cited this method of measuring the community's sensitivity, modified it for solely extreme heat events
Established a Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI score)
Factors: "percent of the population that lives below the poverty line, the percent of households that consist of a single person over the age of 65 living alone, the percent of housing units that were built before 1960, and the percent of the population that did not graduate from high school"
Factors chosen based on literature claims that older or more impoverished people or people without central air conditioning are the most sensitive to heat events.
SoVI score calculated for every region studied
Gave the percentages for each for factors a score from 1-10, averaged the sum.
Data was from the data sets collected (ACS, census)
vulnerability
high vulnerability communities were classified as those with high sensitivity and high exposure.
adaptive capacity
The ability of a community to react to their vulnerability status
outreach programs, more vegetation and trees
"Maps of pixel-level trends in LST and NDVI over time, when compared with the locations of large-scale cooling or greening projects, enable the evaluation of the effectiveness of such projects"
How (if at all) are health disparities or other equity issues addressed in the article or report?
"It is now widely appreciated that differences in demographic characteristics, as defined by income, education levels, race, social class, housing type, and occupation, among other factors, are key contributors to overall vulnerability of a population to climate-related stressors and extreme weather events"
Study points out that socioeconomic disparities cause variance in effects of the urban heating. This study establishes a way to show the need of communities of different socioeconomic status.
Where has this article or report been referenced or discussed? (In some journals, you can see this in a sidebar.)
This report was published very recently. No academic papers have cited it
The Center for International Earth Science has mentioned it as a publication prepared by some CIES staff
They claim the study was funded by a NASA grant, to back the National Climate Assessment and use of indicators in climate change to push government involvement.
Can you learn anything from the article or report’s bibliography that tells us something about how the article or report was produced?
Dataset from Center for International Earth Science Information Network
Philadelphia 2035 Comprehensive Plan
US Gov. organizations
EPA Data base for UHI's
US Census
United States Agency for International Development
Citations to many other journals on vulnerability to climate change
This reveals the use of an abundance of government data and datasets from various organizations.
What three points, details or references from the text did you follow up on to advance your understanding of how air pollution science has been produced and used in governance and education in different settings?
Researched the National Climate Assessment
how climate change is affecting different regions in various ways
how climate is changing various sectors (water, energy, transportation, etc)
- Abstract:
Scientists have connected extreme heat events with climate change. This is magnified by urban heating islands (explained further in this annotation) that already plague urban locations. The hotter atmosphere impacts human health. The changing temperature is documented in satellite and ground source datasets. From 1980 to 2013, urban Philadelphia has increased in extreme heat days by a factor of 3, while suburban Philadelphia has stayed at a constant number. High vulnerable areas were found. "A set of indicators has been developed to map the exposure, social sensitivity, and vulnerability of urban populations to heat wave health impacts. [...]The indicators have helped local decision makers to understand patterns of vulnerability, and may be used in the future to target adaptation actions and measure results (LST reduction or vegetation increase) from existing adaptation actions".- Citation:
Stephanie Weber, et. al, "Policy-relevant indicators for mapping the vulnerability of urban populations to extreme heat events: A case study of Philadelphia," Applied Geography 63 (2015), accessed September 23, 2015, doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2015.07.006Where do the authors work, and what are their areas of expertise? Note any other publications by the authors with relevance to the 6Cities project.
- Stephanie Weber
- Battelle Memorial Institute
- Expertise: Health and analytics
- Publications:
- Applications of the Three-Dimensional Air Quality System to Western U.S. Air Quality: IDEA, Smog Blog, Smog Stories, AirQuest, and the Remote Sensing Information Gateway
- Baltimore, MA research
- A Pilot Study of the Feasibility of using Satellite Aerosol Optical Depth Estimates of PM2.5 as a Predictor of Acute Myocardial Infarctions and Asthma Attacks in Baltimore, Maryland during 2005
- Natasha Sadoff
- Battelle Memorial Institute
- Expertise: Geography
- Publications:
- Hyper-development, Waste, and Uneven Urban Spaces in Panama City
- Erica Zell
- Battelle Memorial Institute
- Expertise: Renewable energy, climate change, air pollution
- Publications:
- Toward the next generation of air quality monitoring: Particulate Matter
- A user-driven approach to determining critical earth observation priorities for societal benefit
- Studies link from science to society
- Alex de Sherbinin
- CIESIN, The Earth Institute at Columbia University
- Expertise: Geography and environmental change
- Publications:
- Toward the next generation of air quality monitoring indicator
- The vulnerability of global cities to climate hazards
What are the main findings or arguments presented in the article or report?- Exposure: The combined lengths of periods of heat events in urban Philadelphia has largely increased, while remaining consistent in the suburban areas of the city.
- 10% of Philadelphia's population live in urban areas.
- The study used "satellite remote sensing and ground-based physical datasets with socioeconomic data" to determine the vulnerability to urban heat events.
- These calculations can be loaded into GIS software and mapping to provide visual aid in revealing the impact of climate change on different urban settings.
- The division of vulnerability into categories (exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity) identifies components in which a city can modify its governance in order to aid the specific region's needs. Breaking down into components forms a more comprehensive approach for politicians to understand and tackle this vulnerability, by adapting and solving conflicts.
- Large amount of "sensitive" population (elaborated on in methods section) in urban areas but also spread across non-urban areas.
- High vulnerability areas
Describe at least three ways that the argument is supported.- Indicators have been developed into mapping systems by the study, for GIS and Google Earth files gives the information to the community in a way that they can learn more on their own, and take part in their city's development.
- Images of vulnerability indicators as it varies across the city buffer the argument that there is disparity between urban and suburban areas.
- Understandable images and visually stimulating
- Identify "hot spots"
- Offers "policy applications" of the findings
- "The Philadelphia Department of Public Health and City Planning Commission also expressed interest in applying the results in updating their District Plans to apply the policy recommendations from the Citywide Vision comprehensive plan at the local level, including zoning, public facilities, and infrastructure investments"
What three (or more) quotes capture the message of the article or report?- "Extreme heat, which is exacerbated by the UHI effect and climate change, is the leading cause of weather-related mortality in the United States and many other countries"
- UHI = Urban Heat Islands
- Increased urban emissions and tall infrastructure absorbing shortwave energy from sunlight and emitting it in longwave form
- "The number of heat-event days in the urban setting has increased from approximately 4 days in 1980 to almost 12 days in 2013, while the non-urban setting has consistently experienced 5 days of heat events per year across the time period."
- "this study sought to develop indicators of urban heat vulnerability that link science and policy in a way that frames the issue in a simple but robust manner, appropriate for supporting informed policy and management decisions"
- Allows people in government to visualize the effects of climate change, the science, in order to form policies and react to the environmental changes, with governance.
- Links science to governance.
- "Maps of pixel-level trends in LST and NDVI over time, when compared with the locations of large-scale cooling or greening projects, enable the evaluation of the effectiveness of such projects."
What were the methods, tools and/or data used to produce the claims or arguments made in the article or report?- Exposure + sensitivity- adaptive capacity = vulnerability
- "Evidence shows that urban populations with higher levels of sensitivity and lower levels of adaptive capacity generally suffer greater impacts from climate-related hazards"
- Chose Philadelphia, PA because of large stakeholder population for climate change and large government involvement in the issue
- Met with government officials and stakeholders to establish the policy-relevant indicators that will address the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of an urban setting (combined form vulnerability)
- Worked with stakeholders to establish methods and incentives of the study
- Formed an Advisory Group: academic, private sector, nonprofit, or government employees that are experts in this technical area
- AG provided technical feedback and also preferential feedback, coming from their social involvement
- "AG members expressed particular interest in indicators that would help gage the impact of the city's adaptation projects (e.g., tree planting, white roofs) and in spatially disaggregated indicators at the neighborhood scale"
- Datasets
- Used satellite remote sensing datasets
- on extreme heat events
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS),
- land surface temperature (LST) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) products, and U.S. Census Bureau data
- Used data from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) global surface summary of the day (GSOD)
- "daily summaries of mean, maximum, and minimum temperature, precipitation amounts, dew point, and other weather elements"
- 25 stations in Philadelphia
- Found 85 percentile values of daily mean, maximum, and minimum temperature in the city
- Directly corresponds with rates of mortality
- NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument assisted this study for:
- Land surface temperature
- Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
- Land cover classification
- The socioeconomic dataset used was the American Community Survey (ACS) from the US Census from 2008 to 2012
- Indicator methodology
- exposure
- measure of how often and intense these weather events happened
- Used 3 different types of data because they each had different benefits
- Weather station air temperature data
- Almost limitless air temperature data but sometimes the stations move and are often distributed sparsely.
- Categorized as Urban or Non-Urban
- Study temperature difference between the settings and effects of UHI
- satellite LST (Land Surface Temperature)
- "continual spatial coverage at resolutions conducive to evaluating neighborhood-level exposures"
- not exact ambient air temperature, but proportional to it.
- satellite NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index)
- Studied the effects of tree shade and evaporating cooling of plant life on air temperature.
- An extreme heat event was defined as 3+ consecutive days with mean temperature measured (the average of every station's mean daily measurement) over the 85th percentile of temperatures in July and August in Philadelphia's history (81F).
- The annual number of days affected by these extreme heat events were collected.
- sensitivity
- Social vulnerability to environmental hazards
- Cited this method of measuring the community's sensitivity, modified it for solely extreme heat events
- Established a Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI score)
- Factors: "percent of the population that lives below the poverty line, the percent of households that consist of a single person over the age of 65 living alone, the percent of housing units that were built before 1960, and the percent of the population that did not graduate from high school"
- Factors chosen based on literature claims that older or more impoverished people or people without central air conditioning are the most sensitive to heat events.
- SoVI score calculated for every region studied
- Gave the percentages for each for factors a score from 1-10, averaged the sum.
- Data was from the data sets collected (ACS, census)
- vulnerability
- high vulnerability communities were classified as those with high sensitivity and high exposure.
- adaptive capacity
- The ability of a community to react to their vulnerability status
- outreach programs, more vegetation and trees
- "Maps of pixel-level trends in LST and NDVI over time, when compared with the locations of large-scale cooling or greening projects, enable the evaluation of the effectiveness of such projects"
How (if at all) are health disparities or other equity issues addressed in the article or report?- "It is now widely appreciated that differences in demographic characteristics, as defined by income, education levels, race, social class, housing type, and occupation, among other factors, are key contributors to overall vulnerability of a population to climate-related stressors and extreme weather events"
- Study points out that socioeconomic disparities cause variance in effects of the urban heating. This study establishes a way to show the need of communities of different socioeconomic status.
Where has this article or report been referenced or discussed? (In some journals, you can see this in a sidebar.)- This report was published very recently. No academic papers have cited it
- The Center for International Earth Science has mentioned it as a publication prepared by some CIES staff
- They claim the study was funded by a NASA grant, to back the National Climate Assessment and use of indicators in climate change to push government involvement.
Can you learn anything from the article or report’s bibliography that tells us something about how the article or report was produced?- Dataset from Center for International Earth Science Information Network
- Philadelphia 2035 Comprehensive Plan
- US Gov. organizations
- EPA Data base for UHI's
- US Census
- United States Agency for International Development
- Compendium of lessons learned from ARCC climate change vulnerability assessments (African and Latin American resilience to climate change project)
- National Climatic Data Center dataset
- Global surface summary of the day (GSOD), 1980 to 2013 (Data set)
- NASA information
- Citations to many other journals on vulnerability to climate change
- This reveals the use of an abundance of government data and datasets from various organizations.
What three points, details or references from the text did you follow up on to advance your understanding of how air pollution science has been produced and used in governance and education in different settings?