Municipal Management of Extreme Heat

Warming temperatures combined with increased urban development have resulted in unbearable heat for many of the region’s residents. Vulnerable populations—including persons with disabilities, the elderly, racial and ethnic minorities, and the poor—bear the brunt of the ill effects. The Municipal Management of Extreme Heat brochure summarizes the geography and causes of current and future extreme heat, the impacts of extreme heat on vulnerable populations and infrastructure, and how municipalities can mitigate, prepare for, and respond to extreme heat events.

Municipal Management of Extreme Heat includes maps and analyses of heat islands, heat vulnerability indices, and heat index projections to the end of the century for Greater Philadelphia. These include:

• Days per Year Above Specified Heat Index (from Union of Concerned Scientists’ Killer Heat report)
• Surface Temperature Difference from Average by Census Block
• Heat Vulnerability Index by Census Tract
• Heat Vulnerability Index by Census Block Group

Click on the geography below (DVRPC region or by county) to download these figures, full-scale maps, images, and links to shapefiles on DVRPC’s GIS Data Catalog specific for the selected geography.

DVRPC Region