A Heat Emergency: Urban Heat Exposure and Access to Refuge in Richmond, VA

The urban heat island effect exacerbates independent climate change-induced shifts toward longer, stronger, and more frequent heat extremes. Environmental inequity, driven by a history of racially motivated urban planning policies, has led particular demographics to bear the worst impacts of urban heat exposure and thus also climate change. These impacts cause adverse health outcomes in the form of heat emergencies. Through a novel demographic and spatial analysis of heat-related illness Emergency Medical Services data from Richmond, Virginia, this study investigates the relationships between heat health emergencies and intra-urban heat islands quantified through three heat exposure metrics. We also evaluate the accessibility of built refuge from urban heat in the form of public transit infrastructure, libraries, and government cooling centers in relation to these emergencies. We found that heat emergencies are inequitably distributed among racial, age, and socioeconomic groups in Richmond, particularly among residents identified as Male, Black or African American, 50+ years old, and experiencing mental health, intoxication, and/or homelessness. We found significant associations between the location of these heat emergencies and urban heat islands as estimated from remotely-sensed surface and community science-derived air temperature metrics, but not a co-estimated heat index. We also found that available refuge facilities are insufficiently located to protect individuals with reduced mobility across areas with the highest number of heat-related health emergencies. Community involvement in the mitigation and management of extreme heat threats, especially for those disproportionately impacted, is necessary to decrease the number of summertime heat illnesses.