SoCal extreme heat research hub
Mary Lou Lindegren | Published on 11/1/2023
The work of the 2023 H3 summit organizing committee has won the Clean Air Award for public health given by the Air Pollution Control District. The 2023 H3 organizing committee includes representatives from the UCSD School of Medicine, the UCSD Climate Action Lab, the American Academy of Pediatrics San Diego climate change and health committee, the LWVSD EJ subcommittee, the American College of physicians, and the Indian Health Council.
SoCal Extreme Heat Research Hub Maren Hale.
Maren Hale presented to the EJ subcommittee on October 24, 2023. You can view the recorded meeting Here.
Maren is a staff research associate at the Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation (CCCIA) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). Within CCCIA, she is the hub manager for the NSF-funded SoCal Extreme Heat Research Hub The SoCal heat hub funded by NSF for five years for 5 million, has three research objectives and two overarching goals.
Three Research Objectives.
1. Atmosphere, Land, and Ocean dynamics How do ocean, atmosphere, and land processes drive and/or modulate extreme heat across varied coastal zone climates and what changes are expected with climate change?
2. Public health, epidemiology and environmental justice (Tarik) What are the locally-specific health impacts of extreme heat and how do they vary according to land use and socioeconomic factors?
3. Ecohydrology and sustainable greening (Morgan Levy, PhD) What is the locally-specific relationship between temperature and vegetation? Where/How can vegetation be used for heat adaptation and what are the associated climate/water resource constraints?
Two Overarching Goals.
1. Education to broaden participation Expand the Hub’s impact through extensive education activities that will broaden participation of underrepresented K-12 students
2. Community engagement Enable long term equitable engagement with regional govt. agencies and community partners. Develop a framework for engagement that centers equity and ensures co-production research. First year accomplishments -education design summits and collaboration with SDUSD including rolling out of “Cooler Communities” curriculum to SDUSD’s 84 STEAM elementary schools this year -publication on role of monsoons on low clouds -presenting at the H3 summit -first community partner engagement event -launching weather stations education project
Environmental Justice Subcommittee Meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 10am through Zoom and is open to the public.
This subcommittee is focusing on the intersection of climate change and health, health equity and environmental justice.