EDI Development Environment
As urban centers across the desert Southwest continue to grow in size and density, so do the challenges posed by the expansion of the built environment. In Phoenix, AZ, this expansion of the built environment creates conditions which magnify the intensity and duration of heat – making it difficult for residents to achieve thermal comfort throughout the day and night. Further, the legacies of urban sprawl and transportation planning in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area have contributed to challenges with atmospheric pollutants. Importantly, urban heat and air quality issues intersect to produce negative health incomes that impact the region’s communities, particularly those who are most vulnerable and least able to adapt.
HUE is a solutions-focused research, policy and technology incubator. As such, HUE rapidly develops, tests and deploys heat-mitigation and air-quality improvement strategies and technologies. In collaboration with practitioners and community members we will create healthier communities across Maricopa County (central Arizona, USA). Deploying a regenerative operational model that uses technology and policy outcomes to fertilize future research and development, HUE will translate air quality and urban heat-related research into policy action, novel technology, and commercialized intellectual property.
HUE has been collaborating with the Decision Theater (DT) at Arizona State University to build an interactive webtool to assist local municipalities, nonprofits, community members, researchers, and other stakeholders in understanding heat, vulnerabilities, and solutions to heat in urban Maricopa County region. This interactive webtool showcases a variety of HUE-funded solutions and research related to extreme heat. In addition, other heat-related solutions and resources from urban Maricopa County are included. The data catalogued here are the underlying data that populate the webtool.
