Abstract
Morbidity and mortality impacts of extreme heat amplified by climate change will be unequally distributed among communities given pre-existing differences in socioeconomic, health, and environmental conditions. Many governments are interested in adaptation policies that target those especially vulnerable to the risks, but there are important questions about how to effectively identify and support communities most in need of heat adaptations. Here, we use an equity-oriented adaptation program from the state of California as a case study to evaluate the implications of the currently used environmental justice index (CalEnviroScreen 3.0) for the identification of socially vulnerable communities with climate change adaptation needs. As CalEnviroScreen is geared towards air and water pollution, we assess how community heat risks and adaptation needs would be evaluated differently under two more adaptation-relevant vulnerability indices: the Social Vulnerability Index and the Heat-Health Action Index. Our analysis considers communities at the census tract scale, as well as the patterns emerging at the regional scale. Using the current index, the state designates 25% of its census tracts as "disadvantaged" communities eligible for special adaptation funds. However, an additional 12.6% of the state's communities could be considered vulnerable if the two other indices were considered instead. Only 13.4% of communities are vulnerable across all three vulnerability indices studied. Choice of vulnerability index shapes statewide trends in extreme heat risk and is linked to a community's likelihood of receiving heat-related California Climate Investments (CCI) projects. Tracts that are vulnerable under the current pollution-focused index, but not under the heat-health specific index, received four times the number of heat-related interventions as tracts vulnerable under the reverse scenario. This study demonstrates important nuances relevant to implementing equity-oriented adaptation and explores the challenges, trade-offs, and opportunities in quantifying vulnerability.
Highlights
Extreme heat threatens the health and wellbeing of people across the globe, but heat-related health impacts are not shared among communities
The state is mandated by law to delegate 25% of its funds from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) to “disadvantaged” communities identified through a vulnerability index called CalEnviroScreen 3.0 (CES) [7–9]
We explore the implications of using vulnerability indices to guide equity-oriented adaptation by considering three key issues: 1) how assessed vulnerability differs depending on the vulnerability index used, 2) how extreme heat risk compares among communities across definitions of exposure and vulnerability, and 3) how adaptation projects are distributed across communities at risk from extreme heat
Summary
Extreme heat threatens the health and wellbeing of people across the globe, but heat-related health impacts are not shared among communities. As climate change continues to increase the frequency and severity of extreme heat events, addressing the social and environmental inequities that increase risk in certain neighborhoods will become more urgent. Because equity-oriented climate adaptation is an emerging priority, this is an especially important moment to evaluate the state’s approach and consider alternatives. We explore the implications of using vulnerability indices to guide equity-oriented adaptation by considering three key issues: 1) how assessed vulnerability differs depending on the vulnerability index used, 2) how extreme heat risk compares among communities across definitions of exposure and vulnerability, and 3) how adaptation projects are distributed across communities at risk from extreme heat. We evaluate the relationship among different measures of vulnerability, extreme heat, and adaptation investment. A “disadvantaged community” is a census tract whose vulnerability index percentile value is in the upper quartile
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