Aug. 18, 2025
Heat is the number one weather-related killer in the U.S. As average global temperatures continue to rise, the threats of both extreme heat events and chronic heat are projected to increase. A new gap in data availability and reliability, coupled with a pullback of federal programs related to climate change, add to the significant challenges planners already face when mitigating and managing extreme heat.
The Trump administration is taking steps to weaken the regulations that support climate action, and to heavily restrict or eliminate the funding that communities rely upon to address the impacts of extreme heat. Recently, the administration unveiled plans to rescind Obama-era EPA rules that allowed for the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, a move that could worsen future chronic and extreme heat events. Key federal offices that administer heat-related funding to communities, such as NOAA's Center for Heat Resilient Communities, have been eliminated. These moves threaten the ability of local planners to address both the short and long-term risks associated with extreme heat.
Heat disproportionately affects historically underresourced residents and those who face systemic inequities in workplace safety, housing quality, energy affordability, transportation reliability, and health-care access. But planning can shape heat risk. As explained in PAS Report 600, Planning for Urban Heat Resilience, planners will be key practitioners in helping their communities achieve greater heat resiliency by proactively managing and mitigating heat across the many systems and sectors it affects.
Tactics, which fall into two categories — heat mitigation and heat management — should be prioritized to maximize co-benefits, minimize tradeoffs, and avoid maladaptive strategies that provide short-term relief but worsen the problem in the long run, like highly inefficient air conditioners that increase electricity demand and greenhouse gas emissions.
With that in mind, here are a few ideas from Planning for Urban Heat Resilience to get you started.
Heat mitigation
When it comes to heat mitigation, the aim is to cool cities, neighborhoods, and heat-vulnerable locations. This can be accomplished through land-use planning, urban design, urban greening, and waste-heat reduction strategies that lessen the built environment's contribution to urban heat.
Because of their systemic nature, heat-mitigation strategies will likely need to be implemented across a variety of community plans, so it is important for planners to coordinate and integrate all plans and policies to advance the community's vision and goals for heat resilience.
1. Go large-scale with land-use planning
Because the built environment affects local climates, broader efforts such as conserving natural areas, developing ventilation corridors, arranging urban geometry (e.g., the dimensions and spacing between buildings), and reducing heat-trapping surfaces associated with transportation systems can be very effective.
2. Take advantage of small-scale design opportunities
Site-level design interventions like orienting buildings and streets for shade, adding shade structures, and using cool pavements, walls, and roofs can impact microclimates and affect heat at a human scale.
3. Increase vegetation
Greening tactics like urban forestry; green stormwater infrastructure; and green roofs, parks, and greenways help cool surrounding areas through evapotranspiration and by providing shade.
4. Reduce waste heat
Increasing building energy efficiency through weatherization and the use of "cool" surfaces, as well as decreasing vehicle use by encouraging transit and active transportation modes, will decrease both waste heat and greenhouse gas emissions.
Reducing individual exposure to dangerous levels of heat may require changes in public infrastructure.
Heat management
Whereas heat mitigation aims to lower temperatures and prevent future extreme-heat events from occurring, heat management is all about preparing for and responding when an extreme-heat event takes place. These types of strategies will require effective coordination across levels of government and among various disciplines and sectors, such as public health, emergency management, and the energy sector.
5. Increase access to indoor cooling
Regulations and assistance programs should be considered to help make cooling accessible and affordable to all. Energy-grid resilience is critical here because electricity used to support indoor cooling increases during extreme heat events, making "brownouts" and power outages especially dangerous.
6. Reduce exposure to dangerous levels of heat
This may require changes in the operation of public infrastructure (e.g., transit stops and hiking trails) and facilities (e.g., playgrounds), as well as in regulations for indoor and outdoor worker safety.
7. Build public awareness
As heat risks increase, it is important to work with public-health professionals to educate and inform the public about the dangers of heat and how to avoid them.
8. Create a heat action plan
Communities' emergency management systems must be prepared for unprecedented extreme-heat events, including early-warning systems, plans for coordinated responses, and designated cooling centers and resilience hubs where people can go for shelter and assistance.
This article has been updated since its original publication in November 2021.
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