Innovative

To improve the usefulness of the City's data tools, the city should intergrate all the heat-related data it has into one publicly accessible, centralised location that shows mapping of heat vulnerability data, locations of hospitals, tree canopy cover, and locations of green spaces and cooling amenities. This centralised website share information about how people can take action to reduce their heat vulnerability and should link more information about City and State Cooling programs, such as the public cooling centrers and the LIHEAP Cooling assistance program. This centralised website should also be a user-friendly tool that provides neighborhood specific and street-level information.

Local Government

US EPA - To inform improvements in heat risk communications and other public health measures, NYC’s Office of Emergency Management conducted quantitative and qualitative studies about heat-health awareness and behaviors. First, a telephone survey of a probability sample of NYC adults was administered to examine AC access, heat-illness prevention behaviors, and awareness of heat-health warnings. Next, NYC’s Office of Emergency Management convened focus groups to elicit qualitative information about heat-health knowledge and behaviors among seniors, who are among the most vulnerable to heat illness and death, and potential senior caregivers. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4074319/