Recap: Informing Heat Solutions‍

Thank you to all who joined us for the Extreme Weather Half Day: Informing Heat Solutions on September 24, 2026! If you missed it, or want to revisit key moments, here’s a recap:

Extreme Heat & Health Expert Panel

Moderated by CAFE’s MPI Greg Wellenius, this panel featured four experts with a variety of perspectives on how we can address heat’s impacts on health and navigate barriers to translating research. 

• Marta Segura (UCLA Center for Healthy Climate Solutions) explained how relationships between regional, state, and federal agencies need to be strengthened and maintained in order to address the public health risk of extreme heat. 

• Amy Buitenhuis (C40 Cities) emphasized the need for an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach to navigating extreme heat that implements a variety of solutions backed by evidence.

• Francesca de’Donato (Department of Epidemiology of the Lazio Region in Rome) shared how Italy has begun preparing for and adapting to extreme heat through building intentional partnerships, securing resources, and making sure public messaging is consistent.

• Ladd Keith (University of Arizona) highlighted some challenges that city planners face when navigating existing laws and regulations. He spoke to solutions for other environmental health hazards, like air pollution, that could inspire creative approaches to extreme heat.

Watch the full expert panel

Resources Mentioned by the Panelists

• Planning for Urban Heat Resilience Report, American Planning Association 
• Center for Heat Resilient Communities 
• Global Heat Health Information Network
• Heatshed Newsletter by Ladd Keith
• Heat–health action plans: guidance, World Health Organization
• Projected increase in cooling demand to 2050 in C40 cities, report by C40 Cities
• Center for Healthy Climate Solutions 
• Heat Relief Resources for Los Angeles, Office of Climate Emergency Mobilization

Heat Solutions Lighting Talks

Fourteen presenters had five minutes to share their work in two parallel sessions. 

Risk, Vulnerability, and Community Voices

• From physiology to design: Using COMFA-Elderly to inform heat-resilient outdoor spaces for aging populations—Shu Sun, University of Wisconsin, Madison 
  Watch now
  

• From outdoor heat to indoor risk: Improving estimates of who benefits from cooling—Skye Yoden, Harvard University
  Watch now

• Chronic pain: A missing piece in extreme temperature risk—Feinuo Sun, University of Texas at Arlington
  Watch now
  
  
• Wanting to adapt but unable to act: Financial and structural constraints to heat protection among pregnant women in Tshwane, South Africa—Kutloano Skhosana, Wits RHI
  Watch now
  
  
• Advancing nature-based solutions for the mitigation of urban heat exosure—Miquel A Gonzalez-Meler, University of Illinois Chicago
  Watch now
  
  
• Building a cooling culture—Nubes Chen, Metropolitan Area Planning Council
  Watch now

Informing Heat Solutions

• Benefit-cost analysis of heat early warning systems and residential air-conditioning subsidies in metropolitan areas in the Northeast United States—Cynthia Ma, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
  Watch now
  
  
• AC in school can mitigate heat-related absences: Evidence from NYC—Lisa Frueh, Drexel University
  Watch now
  
  
• How can we act without evidence? The need for more and better benefit-cost analyses of interventions to mitigate heat stress—Youn Soo Jung, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
  Watch now
  
  
• The science of using urban greening as a heat adaptive strategy—Arnab Ghosh, Cornell University
  Watch now
  
  
• From evidence to action: Implementing community-based heat adaptation in low-resource settings—Syeda Kanza Naqvi, Aga Khan University
  Watch now
  
  
• Visualizing unprecedented heat scenarios—Erin Coughlan de Perez, Tufts University
  Watch now
  
  
• Mitigating the impact of extreme weather and heat events at military installations—Adam Kalkstein, United States Military Academy
  Watch now
  
  
• Community health centers as heat resilience anchors: Moving from identification to action—Rose Gunn, OCHIN
  Watch now

Resources Mentioned by the Lightning Talk Speakers

• Cool Communications Arts Toolbox, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), and the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA)
  
  
• Lower Mystic Cool Communications Campaign, MPAC
  
  
• Hot Takes: How Do You Stay Cool During the Summer Heat?, MPAC
  
  
• Sports Heat Tool, The University of Sydney
  
  
• Developing a community-prioritized research agenda on primary care strategies for minimizing the health impacts of heat and poor air quality events: Protocol, Climate Frontiers
  
  
• From risk to solutions: Building the evidence community health centers need for extreme weather, OCHIN
  
  
• Structural Heat Adaptation and Education in Urban and Rural Settings (SHAPES) project (and its corresponding published study), Aga Khan University, 

Heat Tool Showcase

• cityClimateHealth, created by the Center for Climate and Health at Boston University, presented by Chad Milando. The cityClimateHealth “R” package allows users to estimate climate-health impacts at small spatial scales.
  (visit the tool | watch the presentation)
  
  
• Cool Cities Lab created by World Resources Institute, presented by Ruth Engel. This tool uses replicable data that prompts policymakers and city planners to assess vulnerability and plan for interventions. (visit the tool | watch the presentation)
  
  
• The Heat Action Plan Implementation and Effectiveness (HAPIE) tool created by GDPC, UofA, AU, and UW, presented by Sara Meerow. The HAPIE tool helps cities identify applicable and trackable indicators for their Heat Action Plans.
  (visit the tool | watch the presentation)
  
  
• HeatRisk created by NOAA, presented by Paul Iñiguez. HeatRisk uses a nationally uniform approach to provide additional context to forecasts that helps communities make decisions around potential heat events.
  (visit the tool | watch the presentation)

Watch the full showcase 

Subscribe to the CAFE newsletter to learn about future events!