The Effects of Historical Housing Policies on Resident Exposure to Intra-Urban Heat: A Study of 108 US Urban Areas

Jeremy S Hoffman,Vivek Shandas,Nicholas Pendleton

doi:10.3390/cli8010012

Jeremy S Hoffman, Vivek Shandas + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/cli8010012

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Abstract

The increasing intensity, duration, and frequency of heat waves due to human-caused climate change puts historically underserved populations in a heightened state of precarity, as studies observe that vulnerable communities—especially those within urban areas in the United States—are disproportionately exposed to extreme heat. Lacking, however, are insights into fundamental questions about the role of historical housing policies in cauterizing current exposure to climate inequities like intra-urban heat. Here, we explore the relationship between “redlining”, or the historical practice of refusing home loans or insurance to whole neighborhoods based on a racially motivated perception of safety for investment, with present-day summertime intra-urban land surface temperature anomalies. Through a spatial analysis of 108 urban areas in the United States, we ask two questions: (1) how do historically redlined neighborhoods relate to current patterns of intra-urban heat? and (2) do these patterns vary by US Census Bureau region? Our results reveal that 94% of studied areas display consistent city-scale patterns of elevated land surface temperatures in formerly redlined areas relative to their non-redlined neighbors by as much as 7 °C. Regionally, Southeast and Western cities display the greatest differences while Midwest cities display the least. Nationally, land surface temperatures in redlined areas are approximately 2.6 °C warmer than in non-redlined areas. While these trends are partly attributable to the relative preponderance of impervious land cover to tree canopy in these areas, which we also examine, other factors may also be driving these differences. This study reveals that historical housing policies may, in fact, be directly responsible for disproportionate exposure to current heat events.

Highlights

No other category of hazardous weather event in the United States has caused more fatalities over the last few decades than extreme heat [1]
To make analysis of Landsat-derived land surface temperatures (LST) maps less computationally complex, we condense the 239 unique HOLC maps into a database of 108 US cities or urban areas that we condense the 239 unique HOLC maps into a database of 108 US cities or urban areas that overlap within Landsat 8 imagery tiles, and excluding any cities that were not mapped with at least overlap within Landsat 8 imagery tiles, and excluding any cities that were not mapped with at least one of all four HOLC security rating categories (n = 4)
Our LST maps were generated from Landsat 8 acquisitions that satisfied a < 10 percent scene

Summary

Introduction

No other category of hazardous weather event in the United States has caused more fatalities over the last few decades than extreme heat [1]. Extreme heat is the leading cause of summertime morbidity and has specific impacts on those communities with pre-existing health conditions (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, cardiovascular disease, etc.), limited access to resources, and the elderly [2,3,4]. Urban landscapes amplify extreme heat due to the imbalance of low-slung built surfaces to natural, non-human manufactured landscapes [11,12]. This urban heat island effect can cause temperatures to vary as much as 10 ◦ C within a single urban area [13], even without comparison to a “traditional”

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