Why and How Do Cities Plan for Extreme Heat?

2021 ◽  
pp. 0739456X2110536
Author(s):  
C. J. Gabbe ◽  
Gregory Pierce ◽  
Emily Petermann ◽  
Ally Marecek

Heat is the deadliest weather-related hazard in the United States. This paper studies municipal heat adaptation using survey and planning data from California. We first analyze the characteristics of municipalities that innovate. Cities with heat-related policies have greater degrees of projected extreme heat, leadership support, environmental justice planning, and smaller Hispanic population shares. We then assess specific policy innovations of six large cities by plan type. Some strategies, including expanding tree canopies, have been widely adopted while others, such as cool walls, are rarely included. Findings suggest that planners can—and should—play a central role in heat adaptation planning.

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Andrew Poyar ◽  
Nancy Beller-Simms

Abstract State and local governments in the United States manage a wide array of natural and human resources that are particularly sensitive to climate variability and change. Recent revelations of the extent of the current and potential climate impact in this realm such as with the quality of water, the structure of the coasts, and the potential and witnessed impact on the built infrastructure give these political authorities impetus to minimize their vulnerability and plan for the future. In fact, a growing number of subnational government bodies in the United States have initiated climate adaptation planning efforts; these initiatives emphasize an array of climate impacts, but at different scales, scopes, and levels of sophistication. Meanwhile, the current body of climate adaptation literature has not taken a comprehensive look at these plans nor have they questioned what prompts local adaptation planning, at what scope and scale action is being taken, or what prioritizes certain policy responses over others. This paper presents a case-based analysis of seven urban climate adaptation planning initiatives, drawing from a review of publicly available planning documents and interviews with stakeholders directly involved in the planning process to provide a preliminary understanding of these issues. The paper also offers insight into the state of implementation of adaptation strategies, highlighting the role of low upfront costs and cobenefits with issues already on the local agenda in prompting anticipatory adaptation.


Demography ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 1051-1084 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lincoln Quillian ◽  
Hugues Lagrange

1985 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Lebergott

The demand for land in the United States was shaped by inherited attitudes and modern asset creation. Immigrants inherited the view that landowners had an enhanced chance of survival in a “starving time.” But the United States farmer also found that by clearing his unimproved acres he could create assets from otherwise idle time between seasonal peaks in the use of family labor. Public land sales in the South from 1820 to 1860 correlate well with variables that reflect expected money return and supply price. Substantial residuals for 1835–1837 chiefly trace to specific policy actions in Washington.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-90
Author(s):  
T. E. C.

Noah Webster's (1758-1843) talents were eclectic. Not only was he a superb lexicographer, a prolific writer of schoolbooks, but also a surprisingly keen epidemiologist. School children of the 1830's who read his History of the United States learned the following about acute and chronic diseases: Diseases of the United States. The ordinary diseases of the United States are the same as those which invade mankind in all similar climates. The usual epidemics are hooping cough (sic), measles, influenza, scarlet fever, with some milder eruptive diseases. These diseases are periodical, though the periods are not exactly uniform. The autumnal diseases are chiefly dysentery and bilious fevers of all grades, from slight intermittents to the malignant fever, which is denominated pestilence. The dysentery appears, in scattered cases every year; but in some autumns becomes epidemic with great mortality. It however never invades large cities with such general mortality, as it does particular parts of the country. The malignant bilious fever occurs occasionally, but chiefly in large towns on the sea coast, or on rivers, or near lakes and stagnant water. Chronic Diseases. In the northern region of the United States, and especially on the sea shore, the consumption is the most general and fatal chronic complaint; carrying off in some places, a fifth of the inhabitants. In the middle region it is prevalent, but in a less degree; and in the southern, is still less destructive. Rheumatic complaints, gout, and hypochondriac affections are common. In the country west of the mountains, between the Ohio and the lakes, the goiter, or swelling upon the throat, is very prevalent among the whites, but not among the natives.1


Author(s):  
John S. Lapinski

This chapter introduces a new measure of legislative accomplishment. To understand lawmaking requires that one move beyond studying political behavior in Congress alone and beyond a complete empirical reliance on roll call votes. Moreover, legislative behavior and legislative outputs must be studied in tandem to gain a proper understanding of the lawmaking process in the United States. Although the idea of studying important lawmaking across time is not controversial, constructing an appropriate measure is not a trivial exercise. The chapter constructs a comprehensive lawmaking data set that provides measures of legislative accomplishment at the aggregate level as well as by specific policy issue areas for a 118-year period. It also explains the construction of Congress-by-Congress measures of legislative accomplishment, including measures broken down by the policy-coding schema.


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