Disproportionate exposure to urban heat island intensity across major US cities

Nat Commun. 2021 May 25;12(1):2721. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22799-5.

Abstract

Urban heat stress poses a major risk to public health. Case studies of individual cities suggest that heat exposure, like other environmental stressors, may be unequally distributed across income groups. There is little evidence, however, as to whether such disparities are pervasive. We combine surface urban heat island (SUHI) data, a proxy for isolating the urban contribution to additional heat exposure in built environments, with census tract-level demographic data to answer these questions for summer days, when heat exposure is likely to be at a maximum. We find that the average person of color lives in a census tract with higher SUHI intensity than non-Hispanic whites in all but 6 of the 175 largest urbanized areas in the continental United States. A similar pattern emerges for people living in households below the poverty line relative to those at more than two times the poverty line.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Black or African American / statistics & numerical data
  • Cities
  • Environmental Exposure / adverse effects
  • Environmental Exposure / analysis*
  • Geography
  • Health Status Disparities*
  • Heat Stress Disorders / ethnology*
  • Hispanic or Latino / statistics & numerical data
  • Hot Temperature*
  • Humans
  • Income / statistics & numerical data
  • Maryland
  • Poverty / statistics & numerical data
  • South Carolina
  • United States
  • Urban Health / ethnology*
  • White People / statistics & numerical data