Description:

Extreme weather events, such as heat waves, are causing communities to face chronic stressors, impacting human health and well-being. Addressing the challenge of extreme heat requires collaborative efforts at and across scales. It also requires multidisciplinary and place-based approaches, integrating local knowledge and social sciences to put into effect sustainable and equitable policy solutions. In response to this immense challenge, since 2015, the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) has promoted actionable, science-based information to help protect the nation from heat. In this session NIHHIS invites heat policy experts and practitioners to provide an  overview of their activities, lessons learned, and best practices. This session will help others in this space, from academic researchers to city government officials to non-profit organizations, learn how they can also better build community resilience to extreme heat.

We seek presentations from those who have sought interdisciplinary approaches to build equitable heat resilience, particularly in the fields of social science and policy. We invite diverse expertise from scholars, practitioners, and community leaders to discuss ways in which they have, for example: developed and implemented innovative heat policies that support equitable heat resilience, established heat policy communities of practice, created metrics to evaluate heat governance, provided technical or policy assistance to heat-vulnerable communities, or implemented educational methods to assist short- and long-term heat planning.