Experts predict summer temperatures could surpass 2023’s record heat waves, prompting cities to plan mitigation measures.
After a record-hot summer in 2023, cities around the world are preparing for another potentially scorching season in 2024. As Ysabelle Kempe explains in Smart Cities Dive, “Perhaps the most time-sensitive heat-related question currently facing U.S. cities is what needs to happen before this summer arrives to minimize heat-related death and illness as much as possible.”
According to Victoria Ludwig, senior climate specialist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Community Revitalization, “Cities are increasingly looking to longer-term strategies to offset higher temperatures, like adding green space and cool pavement. However, these interventions must be seriously scaled up to make significant differences in a neighborhood’s ambient air temperature.”
Cities like Phoenix, Miami, and Los Angeles have funded new municipal offices and developed plans to prepare for extreme heat. These plans include ways to reduce the urban heat island effect, such as planting trees and installing cool pavement treatments, and strategies for protecting residents such as cooling centers and awareness outreach for vulnerable groups like the unhoused and elderly people. Some advocates are calling for regulations on maximum indoor temperatures for tenants (heating and running water already have similar rules).
FULL STORY: Extreme heat watch: Will cities be ready for summer 2024?
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