Tuesday, August 13 | Martes 13 de agosto | Terça-feira, 13 de agosto

8:00 – 9:00 CST; 11:00 -12:00 BRT & ART; 19:30 - 20:30 IST

Last year was the hottest year on record, and with this year poised to surpass that threshold, extreme heat—one of WRI’s Stories to Watch for 2024— is top of mind across the world. Intensifying heat poses a significant risk to cities by exacerbating and causing health issues, straining infrastructure, and amplifying socio-economic disparities. Urban areas, with their dense populations and extensive concrete surfaces, absorb and retain heat, leading to dangerously high temperatures, an increasingly common phenomenon in cities around the world. Extreme urban heat causes heat-related illnesses, increases mortality rates, and burdens healthcare systems. Additionally, the stress on energy systems from increased air conditioning use can lead to power outages, while transportation and water systems can also be compromised. Vulnerable communities, often lacking resources to cope with extreme heat, suffer disproportionately, underscoring the urgent need for targeted mitigation strategies such as green infrastructure, improved building designs, and community-based resilience programs.

Co-organized by UrbanShift and WRI’s Urban Development team, this webinar builds on UrbanShift’s “Urban Cooling” webinar, hosted in August 2023. Presenters will brief attendees on how to use geospatial data and analysis to think about urban heat hazards, to measure the impact of heat risks in cities, and to test the cooling potential of interventions. Representatives from expert organizations like the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock), and cities such as Freetown, Medellin and North Dhaka will discuss the various innovative strategies and solutions that cities can utilize to mitigate extreme heat, including green infrastructure, building design and efficiency, and community-scale interventions. The webinar will conclude with a survey of webinar attendees to engage in forthcoming user heat research, and an overview of forthcoming data and tools from WRI that will be made available to cities.

Cover image by Kirill Fokin/Unsplash